SmashMouth Burgers held its second annual burger-eating contest June 24, and winner Sean Yeager smashed the competition with 13.5 burgers, which is more than double last year’s winning total.
Rain and possible thunderstorms had been predicted, but it was sunny and humid the day of the contest. Twelve contestants had 10 minutes to eat as many two-patty cheeseburgers as possible. They could sit or stand and use liquid to soften up the burgers.
Mike McLean ate six-and-a-half burgers to win last year’s inaugural contest. He returned to defend his title, but about halfway through he was laughing at Yeager’s pace and recognized defeat. He wasn’t the only one. It was clear from the start that Yeager was devouring the burgers at a different level than all other competitors – at one point, he ran out of burgers and Jason Dibattista, the contestant to his left, was happy to donate one off his plate.
A self-described up-and-coming amateur competitive eater, Yeager won $250, but he donated it back to SmashMouth to support the Jamie Parsons Culinary Scholarship Fund. Parsons, the founder of SmashMouth, died of cancer about 10 months ago. Twenty percent of the event’s proceeds went to the fund, which was set up to provide an annual culinary scholarship to a Sussex County resident. Yeager is a survivor of testicular cancer.