Junior places fifth in national eating contest

The battle lines were drawn Saturday as eating warriors from around North America faced off in a clash of iron-clad stomachs and heroic willpower.

But for the university's personal gladiator, junior food science major Brian "Eatin'" Keaton, a plate of fast food turned out to be his Achilles' heel.

Keaton took fifth place in the eating competition Saturday in San Diego at the Collegiate Nationals, a collection of college-themed competitions that also included sports such as beach volleyball, wakeboarding, boxing and weightlifting.

The eating competition required the seven contestants to eat as many plates of two half-pound hamburgers, a jumbo hot dog and a quarter-pound of fries as they could in seven minutes. Keaton, in what he called his hardest competition yet, made it through two plates. By contrast, the winner of the contest, who hailed from Canada, ate three-and-a-half plates.

Keaton started out strong, leading the competition for the first three minutes. He slowed down, however, after he started choking on the dry hamburger - unlike other eating competitions, contestants were not allowed to dip their food in water. After that slip-up, Keaton said it was hard for him to catch up.

"I started choking, and I couldn't do anything about it," Keaton said. "It was just bad luck. After that, it was hard to eat as fast as you can, so that threw me off."

Junior animal sciences major Pranav Chawla, Keaton's friend and trainer who accompanied him to San Diego, also blamed his loss on the fact that the food had been left out for a while beforehand, making it hard for Keaton to swallow.

"I think it's just unfortunate that it turned out that way," Chawla said. "I think he is probably a better quality eater than them. They just turned out to be winners."

The difference between second and fifth place was merely a few bites, Keaton said, with only the winner outpacing them all.

Keaton went into the competition with a strategy of eating the food in a certain order. First, he attacked the burgers, then the hot dog and finally the pile of fries. The plan was working as he finished his first plate, but after he started choking on the second plate's burger, his lead went downhill.

Another strategy Keaton used was eating only Jolly Rancher hard candies for 24 hours before the championship. Ultimately, he felt the move was a mistake, leaving him too hungry by the time the competition started.

"I was really disappointed with the results," Keaton said. "After the contest, I felt like I let down my school and a lot of my friends and people expecting me to do well. When I look back, it's really cool that I got sent out there to be in an eating contest on national television all the way across the country."

But for Keaton, there's always next year.

"It was definitely an awesome experience," he said. "It showed me I have to work harder. I am probably going to come back next year and do it. I just have to work as hard as I can. I'll be back."

A special on the entire Collegiate Nationals, featuring the eating competition, will air May 25 on CBS.

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