The food of choice in the Great Hall Friday evening was hot dogs-105 of them.
Seven students competed in Sausage Fest 2K7 to see who could eat the most hot dogs in 20 minutes during Campus Council's monthly Fridays on the Plaza.
Senior Chris Shaw and sophomore Rhut Vasavada both finished eight hot dogs-dividing the prize of a trophy and a $50 gift certificate to Southpoint Mall.
A miscount first declared Shaw the sole winner, but the error was quickly corrected.
"I don't know what the official hot dog rules are," said Campus Council President Jay Ganatra, a senior.
He noted that Vasavada finished eight whole hot dogs and Shaw ate seven and two halves.
"The trophy looks cool and I haven't won a trophy in like 10 years," Vasavada said after the win.
The winners each had a different strategy: Shaw said he doubled up on the hot dogs as he had seen others do during televised contests, while Vasavada opted to dip the hot dog buns in water.
"It tasted horrible, but [the bread] went right down," he said. "But it was too gross to keep doing."
Shaw, who selected the gift certificate, had to take a mid-contest break to refill his beer cup, which he said didn't slow him down.
"The beer helped me," he said.
Vasavada said he was confident going into the contest.
"I feel awesome, psyched and a little nervous," he said before the start. "It's been my life-long dream-ever since I saw a little Japanese man pound it, I wanted to pound it too."
Vasavada noted that Takeru Kobayashi-the world hot dog-eating record holder-is his eating idol.
Sophomore Hope Lu, a Campus Council at-large representative and organizer of the event, signed up at the last minute to be the only female participant.
"I did it because there were no girls-even though I hate hot dogs," she said. "It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but I feel disgusting."
Sophomore Haru Yamamoto said he felt the same just observing the competition.
"It makes me disgusted to sit here and watch," Yamamoto said.
Spectators at the competition cheered the contestants on, some standing on chairs to see better.
"It's the first time I've ever seen this-I think it's crazy" said senior Buki Samuel.
Ganatra estimated that approximately 200 to 300 students showed up for the event, noting that the venue and cross-programming with fraternity semiformals made it difficult to attract a larger crowd.
"The goal with this, with all programming, is to allow social contact among the students," said junior Hasnain Zaidi, Campus Council facilities and services chair. "I consider this a success when all the people here, and the people not here, are having a good time."
Attendees said the program is a great idea, but many students did not know about it.
"It's nice that campus groups try so hard. I think it works better in the fall semester," said sophomore Thilan Wijesekera. "I saw flyers being put up yesterday."
Ganatra, however, said publicity for the event was fine.
"Nobody can say they didn't know about it," he said. "If you have a Duke e-mail account, you knew."
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.