Thanks Bubba Yarbrough:

Hall Hunt 20
Bubba Yarbrough 19
Frank Wach 17 1/2
Brian Subich 15
Larry McNeil 14 1/2

Congratulations to Hall “Pretty Boy” Hunt, whose win combined with a 2nd place finish in the SC contest nets him $1,500 for the extended weekend. The final grilled cheese qualifier in Phoenix on Friday is apparently Joey Chestnut’s to lose.

Updated 10/18 8:47 am The Greensboro News-Record has an article about the contest.

9:29 am the blog for WRAL TV has an entry (and a photo gallery) about the contest.

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If you are looking for quotes from professors about competitive eating, pro and con, this column from fortwayne.com can provide them.

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Rich LeFevre made a triumphant return to his previous hometown at the Verizon VoiceWing Buffalo wing contest in San Francisco, defeating Cookie Jarvis in double overtime on Saturday. This is the second double OT contest “The Locust” has been involved in this year (He lost to Sonya Thomas in the MTV popcorn contest in June.) Rich and Cookie’s regulation total of 4.92 pounds is considerably better than Joey Chestnut’s winning total of 4.51 from the Seattle contest. Three other competitors qualified for the finals in Boston, but are not listed. (From IFOCE.com, no article currently available).

At the Mississippi State Fair Sunday, Buffalo Jim Reeves won the Krystal qualifier with 27 burgers. David Ray of Yazoo City almost won with 26 and John Anderson finished took third with 20. “Krazy” Kevin Lipsitz appeared, but finished out of the money. This article from the Clarion Ledger mentions the contest. (Updated 10/17 10:33 am)

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The blog for Schnäck’s restaurant has the results of their mini-burger contest held Friday. “Gentleman” Joe Menchetti won with 21 burgers in 8 minutes. The contest required picnic-style eating, which decreased the totals as compared with the Krystal burger contests which has no such restriction.

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Thanks to Bubba Yarbrough

Eric “Badlands” Booker: 24.5 grilled Cheese, Copaigue, NY
Hall “Pretty Boy” Hunt: 17, Orange Park, FL
Don “Sugar Bear” Schaeffer 13, Myrtle Beach, SC
Loren “Bubba” Yarbrough 12.5, Newnan, GA
Larry “The Legend” McNeil 12.5, Atlanta, GA

Congratulation to Badlands Booker whose 24.5 sandwiches is the second best so far on the qualifying circuit. Booker’s victory makes the NC contest appear to be rather wide open, with Joe LaRue the highest ranked eater currently expected to attend.

Update 10/15 8:31 pm WLTX has an article and a video clip about the contest

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Anyone driving from the northeast to the NC State Fair ought to take I-95 to new US 64 (which is not yet on any online maps) and not I-85 to US 1.

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WLTX has a video of ultramarathoner/competitive eater Ray Krolewicz competing against one of its anchors.

The Durham Herald sun has a general preview of the fair mentioning that Joe LaRue will attend the grilled cheese contest.

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The San Jose Mercury has an interview about Cookie Jarvis in conjunction with the Verizon Voice Wing chicken wing contest to be held Saturday. The contest will be held at the Hyatt at Fisherman’s Wharf, which seems a more apt location for a seafood eating contest.

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This forum thread describes Mara Thomas’ efforts to compete in the 2004 Sweet Potato Casserole contest held at the NC State Fair. (Based on the comments in the thread, she is apparently an eater of considerable abilities). She wound up having to miss the contest because it was held during working hours. If she enters the 2005 grilled cheese contest held at the same site she will not have to face Sonya Thomas who won the previous year’s event.

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This column by G. D. Gearino at newsobserver.com laments the replacement of last year’s sweet potato contest at the NC State Fair with a grilled cheese qualifier.

This article profiles an ultramarathoner, Ray Krolewicz, who plans to compete in the South Carolina State fair grilled cheese qualifier and then run a 50K (31 mile) race the next day.

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nctimes.com has an article about the grilled cheese qualifier held at the (inland) Southern California Fair at Lake Perris which was won by Jed Donahue with the impressive total of 20.5 sandwiches. The article focuses on Joe Camacho who ate 7 sandwiches. (2nd place, UC Irvine graduate student Justin Mih, did 14 and 3rd place (not named) did 13)

Updated 10/11 8:00 am – pe.com has an article about the contest (registration required)

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From macon.com article:

1st: ‘Humble’ Bob Shoudt, Royersford, Pa., 29 burgers
2nd: Bubba Yarbrough, Newnan, 25 burgers
3rd: Hall Hunt, Gainesville, Fla., 24 burgers

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The AP has an article (at abcnews.com) about the goldenpalace.com grilled cheese qualifier held Saturday at the Arkansas State Fair. The results of that contest are:

1. Cookie Jarvis, Long Island, NY, 19 sandwiches
2. Pat Philbin, Moonachie, NJ, 17.5 sandwiches
3. Michael Finnell, Sherwood, AR, 11.5 sandwiches (after 1 minute overtime to decide 3rd)
4. Christopher Tarleton, Corpus Christi, TX 10 sandwiches (lost overtime to Finnell)

With 4 qualifiers left, notable eaters who have yet to qualify include Joey Chestnut and Badlands Booker. (Hopefully Carlene LeFevre will recover in time to participate in the Phoenix contest) If Joey Chestnut competes in the Southern California Fair contest to be held Monday, it will be interesting to see if he challenges Tim Janus’ record of 31. (It has been rumored that Kobayashi will appear at the Southern California contest) The article mentions that there will be a finals contest at an undetermined date and time to determine the allocation of the $20,000.

Updated 10/9 3:55 pm The Arkansas Democrat Gazette has an article mentioning the contest.

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(Thanks Ken Wong) CBS news has a video clip of the Seattle Wing contest with brief interviews with Joey Chestnut and Badlands Booker at

http://www.cbsnews.com/elements/2004/11/05/world/videoarchive653991.shtml

Scroll down until the contest is found

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dallasnews.com has an article (registration required) about the Krystal Square Off qualifier at the State Fair of Texas. Rich LeFevre won the contest by eating 35 burgers. No other competitors or totals were listed. Hopefully Carlene recovered sufficiently from her hospital stay to make the trip with her husband.

Updated 10/3 11:33 PM top 3 (from ifoce.com)

1. Rich “The Locust” LeFevre 35 burgers
2. Kurtis Wright, 22 burgers
3. Levi Oliver, 21 burgers

The ifoce.com writeup mentions that Carlene was present. Hopefully she will complete her recovery soon and return to competition if she desires.

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(From beautifulbrian.com)

1. Joey Chestnut, 4.5 lb.
2. Eric “Badlands” Booker, 3.6 lb.
3. “Humble” Bob Shoudt 3.5 lb.
4. Patrick Bertoletti 2.93 lb.
5. Jason “The Erbivore” Erb 2.9 lb.

(Updated 10/7 9:51 am – Thanks Jason Erb – added #4 and #5 totals and correctly
listed Jason Erb’s name and nickname)

(Updated 10/5 12:33 am #6 finisher Ken Wong has provided me with a listing of the remaining finishers)

#6 – Ken “The Demolisher” Wong, about 2.29 lb. surrey.bc.ca unranked
#7 to 11 – Scott”Pork Slayer” Sayer, ?.?? lb., Albany,OR IFOCE Rank #44
#7 to 11 – Brian McDonald, about 1.05 lb. Everett, WA, unranked
NOTE: Brian McDonald was the top local eater from Washington unranked
#7 to 11 – Keith Gerhart Less than about 1.05 lb. Everett, WA unranked
#7 to 11 – Robert Cochran Less than about 1.05 lb. Everett, WA unranked
#7 to 11 – ?? Less than about 1.05 lb. ??-Everett, WA unranked

No Sport Illustrated (on Campus) jinx for Joey Chestnut as he continues the momentum he established in August and Labor Day weekend, easily beating “Badlands” Booker, who is unable to upset a top 3 eater in chicken wings for the second time in a month. All three (and the next two places) qualify for the finals in Boston next month.

Updated 10/02 12:38 am Yahoo news has a picture of Chestnut and Booker along with a results summary

Updated 10/02 9:53 am Heraldnet.com has an article about the contest

10:50 am Seattle Times article

Updated 10/03 11:30 pm places #4 and #5 added (from humblebob.com)

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The Seattle Times has a preview of Saturday’s Verizon VoiceWing chicken wing qualifier focusing on expected entrants Joey Chestnut and Eric “Badlands” Booker. The training methods of both competitiors are described. The article incorrectly states that Booker holds the Buffalo Wing Festival contest record (which was set by Sonya Thomas in 2004). It is surprising that Joey Chestnut would make the trip north when he has a qualifying contest in his hometown in two weeks. “Humble” Bob Shoudt states on his website that he and Patrick Bertoletti are also planning to compete. The top five competitors in the three qualifiers (also in SF and DC) will make the finals in Boston.

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I emailed the address found at dennysbeerbarrelpub.com about the result of the attempt by Lori Weiss at the 11 pound Ye Olde 96er burger witnessed by baxojayz and received the following response:

Hello from the Pub I’m happy to report that Lori Weis completed the
Ye Ole 96er in 2 hours 54 minutes to tie Kate Stelnick for the
record…Thanks for asking Denny

It is hard to believe that the two people to finish the 96er in under three hours have a combined weight of about 200 pounds. Since Lori Weiss weighs only about 90 pounds she is probably the champion in percentage of bodyweight consumed except for possibly Kobayashi. Maybe Lori tying Kate will inspire Kate to return to Denny’s to regain sole possession of the record.

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Before Kate Stelnick finished Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub’s 11 pound Ye Olde 96er burger in January, Lori Weiss came closest to completing the behemoth burger in the three hour time limit when she finished all except the bottom half of its bun despite a body weight of less than 100 pounds. Lori Weiss also finished Denny’s burger with 3 pounds of meat (about 5 pounds total) in a record 36 minutes. Blogger Baxojayz was present at Denny’s July 4th weekend when Ms. Weiss made another attempt at the leviathan. He said that she almost finished all the burger in two hours but does not provide her finishing time (or explicity state he saw her complete it).

If Lori Weiss did finish the burger, it is surprising that no media attention was paid to it at all since Kate Stelnick received a substantial amount of national publicity after her accomplishment. It is possible that she requested Denny’s to not inform the media about her feat, but she cannot be that extremely publicity shy since her record breaking attempt at the 3 pound burger was filmed for the Food Network in 2002.

It is interesting that the petite Pennsylvanian has apparently not competed in any contests or challenges outside of Denny’s since she seems to have world class eating ability in longer duration events and has the potential to give Sonya Thomas, if not Kobayashi a challenge. If AICE could get Ms. Weiss enrolled as a member, then that organization’s case that it is equivalent to IFOCE in restaurant’s eating challenges would be bolstered tremendously.

I wonder if Ms. Weiss will attempt Denny’s 15 pound Belly Buster burger. The article about her eating the 3 pound burger mentions that she ran four miles before attempting it (she might be able to singlehandedly finish the 50 pound “Mount Olympus” burger after completing a marathon.)

Updated 9/28 1:57 am Baxojayz says he was not there to see Lori complete the burger but she was almost finished at the two hour mark. He also said that she would not have set a record if she finished soon after because the record is below two hours. I was not aware that anyone had completed the 96er since Kate Stelnick finished it in 2:54 in January

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Corrected Albuquerque grilled cheese results from Skinnyboy. Sorry for any inconvenience resulting from my assumption that Donovan Busta was the likely winner based on the headline saying the winner was from Colorado.

1. Leland Collins – 16
2. Levi Oliver- 13.5
3. Andrew Lane – 12

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The Memphis Commercial Appeal has an article about Sunday’s Krystal Square Off qualifier at the Mid South Fair. The majority of the article is about a Baylor medical student who competed after evacuating to Memphis to avoid Rita. Tennessean Sam Vise finished in first place with 33 burgers. Thomas Petrowski was 3rd with 22 burgers. (2nd place was not listed)

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abqjournal.com for September 25 has a headline (under New Mexico & the West) mentioning that a Coloradan (Donovan Busta in all probability) won Saturday’s goldenpalace.com grilled cheese qualifier at the New Mexico State Fair with 16 sandwiches. Reading the article requires a paid subscription. Levi Oliver was also expected to compete.

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Kate Stelnick’s student newspaper has an article in which she describes the aftermath of eating Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub 11 pound burger in January. This is the first article about Kate that I have been able to find since February. Like all the previous articles, no details are offered about what made Kate so certain she could finish the burger (are 5/7/9? pound meals commonplace for her?). She feels that society has made too big a deal about her accomplishment (the same could also be said for driving several hundred times around a racetrack, slapping a ball over a fence, or nearly everything else considered a big-time sport.) While her feat is certainly not on the level of curing cancer, it did offer a glimpse into what humans are capable of achieving (and also deflated some male chauvinists’ egos in the process).

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(From ahamburgertoday.com comments:) Pictures of the 50 pound “Mount Olympus” burger are available at the website of radion station NJ 101.5 FM.

It is surprising that no local news articles about the “Mount Olympus” are available. Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub 15 pound burger received a substantial degree of national media attention. I guess the media is “megaburgered” out.

Never eat more than you can lift — Miss Piggy

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The Salt Lake City Tribune has an article about the grilled cheese contest Sunday with some information about winner Ron Koch. None of the other competitors are named (2nd place finished with 11.5 sandwiches)

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