COVENTRY TWP: There was a lot of spoon shoveling, slurping and finger licking at the inaugural Ice Cream Eating Challenge on Saturday at Nicoletti’s Park Place in Coventry Township.
The rules were simple, “eat as much ice cream as quickly as you can in five minutes.”
Pav’s Creamery on Manchester Road hosted the event to help benefit the March of Dimes. More than $1,000 was raised with about 70 people in attendance.
The vanilla bean-flavored ice cream came in 4-ounce cups. Contestants had to open the container, eat and stack the empty cups. A cup had to be fully eaten before moving on to the next cup and the contestant was eliminated if he or she regurgitated at any point during the competition.
The prize?
“Free Pav’s ice cream for a year. Yes, $5 worth of ice cream every day, 365 days of the year,” said Nik Pappas, whose family owns Pavs. “We have done other events with the March of Dimes, so I wanted to try something a little different.” Twenty people signed up for the 16 years and older contest. Because of the large number they had to compete in two rounds. There were three women and 17 men who entered the contest. They all started with 15 containers of the ice cream.
Sara White, 25, of Akron, and her brother, Jacob, 23, of Barberton, decided to give it a lick.
“I kind of gave up when I saw everyone else eating twice as much as me,” she said after downing six containers. “It wasn’t such a good idea. I’m not feeling good right now, I’m lactose intolerant.”
Her brother ate 14 containers worth of ice cream and was feeling fine.
But the challenge also proved too much for Eric Young, 28, of New Franklin, and Matt Barnett, 30, of Barberton.
“My cousin called me up and said I should enter the contest with him because no way was I going to beat him,” Young said. “He was right. I got through two and a half cups of ice cream and had to quit. I tried to grab the whole amount in my hand and shove it down, but it was too cold — brain freeze.”
Young ended up throwing the rest away, because it was too cold in his hands. The move automatically disqualified him. His cousin also quit eating, but only after getting through seven cups.
“I had to, my stomach said ‘no, no, no,’ ” Barnett said.
Wearing a T-shirt sporting the words “I got it,” Dylan Pugh, 19, of New Franklin, seemed to be on the winning path as he swallowed 17 cups of ice cream in the second round. But couldn’t keep it down. After he regurgitated some of the ice cream, he jumped in the lake to rinse off.
“The frozen ones got me. The last few cups were still solid and cold,” he said. “The rest were melted and easier to eat.”
Shaun Robinson, 44, of Coventry Township, used two fingers to help pour the ice cream down his throat.
“I thought I had a good system, but the frozen ones were hard to eat with my fingers and my fingers started to hurt when I tried to dig into the cup,” he said. “I have been a lifelong Pav’s customer, so I couldn’t pass up the chance to win free ice cream from my favorite ice cream spot.”
He ate 16 containers.
But the winner, Nick Doughty, 34, of Wadsworth, was clearly the champion of the day. He downed 20 of the 4-ounce cups.
“I don’t get brain freeze,” he said. “My teeth are cold and my lips are cold, but I feel fine.”
He said he didn’t have any strategy. He just kept shoveling in the ice cream, nonstop.
“My buddy and I entered for the fun of it,” he said. “It was for charity.”
Only six people signed up for the 9 to 15 age group ice cream competition.
Austin Garber, 13, a seventh-grader at Manchester Middle School, said he likes ice cream, but didn’t know how much until Saturday. He was excited to win because Pav’s Creamery is right down the street from his house.
He ate eight cups of ice cream.
“I didn’t practice. I just shoved it down,” Austin said. “My favorite ice cream is vanilla, but now I like vanilla bean.”
This year marks 75 years of service for the March of Dimes.
Marilyn Miller can be reached at 330-996-3098 or mmiller@thebeaconjournal.com.