The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Madison dogs out win over South by one hot dog
Aiden Thompson and Cody O’Bradovich were doing just fine on their own at the annual News-Herald/Varsity Chalk Talk hot dog eating contest at Hooley House. As the final minute ticked down, a booming voice came from the back of the restaurant.
It was Madison coach Tim Willis, bellowing his support and urging two of his team’s linemen to push through.
Thompson and O’Bradovich did that.
Cramming two hot dogs into their mouths in the final seconds — and finishing swallowing them after the buzzer (which is within the rules), the Madison tandem finished 14 jumbo-sized hot dogs in three minutes to take the contest championship.
The 14 hot dogs — bun and all — upstaged second-place finishers Drew Schoeppler and Nathan Tekavec of South by one.
Lake Catholic’s Tom Marjak and Benjamin Lausin tied with Riverside’s freshman tandem of Henry Bush and Alex Mlakar for third place with 12 hot dogs each.
The rest of the field included Mentor’s Ryan Jacoby and Frank Schmidt (11), Brush’s Justin Grigsby and Cameron Townsend (11), Kirtland’s Mike Alfieri and Logan Snowdell (seven) and Chardon’s John Dinko and John Paglio (six).
“I told them no matter what we do, we have to compete,” Willis said of his instruction to Thompson and O’Bradovich. “They came here and competed tonight.”
Thompson and O’Bradovich wore Madison 212 shirts, which indicates the temperature water turns to steam — not the number of hot dogs they aimed to eat.
“We put in 212 effort, that’s for sure,” Thompson said. “We were putting them down. We had a good strategy.”
The strategy called for Thompson to eat all the buns early on and O’Bradovich to eat the hot dogs. Midway through, they switched up.
Thompson said he was itching to finish first this year after he and former teammate Clay Smith finished second to South’s Schoeppler and Tekavec last year by one hot dog.
This time, Madison held the one-dog advantage.
“I’ve never done anything like this before,” O’Bradovich said. “It was pretty good. Hey, we came in first.”
Slapping his teammate on the shoulder, Thompson said, “Undefeated. He’s undefeated.”
Tekavec said he thought he and Schoeppler “had it in the bag” after taking down 13 hot dogs in the first round. He credited Thompson for ramming two hot dogs in his mouth late and finishing the after the clock ran out.
Rules state you can swallow anything in your mouth after time expires — you just can’t add anything after the time runs out.
Tekavec said the real contest will be on the field this fall.
“Madison can see us on the field,” he said. “That’s all I’m going to say.”