Food relay draws students for friendly competition

Macomb senior Steven Purgar drinks the last bits of pretzel rod for team Kappa Delta Pi on Monday night in Finch Fieldhouse during the Chippewa Food Rally. “I’m like shaking right now from adrenaline!” said Purgar. (Bethany Walter/Staff Photographer)

Spectators and eager competitors gathered at Finch Fieldhouse Monday night for the sixth annual Chippewa Food Relay. The event, which was organized by Sara Krajnik, was a part of Homecoming Week activities.

“The Food Relay is a staple of Homecoming Week,” said Megan Ellinger, co-chair of the homecoming committee. “A lot of people always show up for it and it’s really fun.”

Fifteen teams, including residential halls and registered student organizations, took part in the eating race. Each of eight team members had to eat a specific food before tagging the next person. Finishing each course gave the team a word and all eight words combined created a question that the team had to then answer.

Before the relay started, Larzelere Hall junior Nicholas Varner gave an inspiring speech to rally his team to victory, which ended with the war cry, “Tonight, we dine in Finch!”

“I’m pretty confident,” the Bad Axe native. “We’re pretty pumped, pretty psyched up.”

The theme of this year’s Homecoming Week is “All That Glitters is Chippewa Gold,” so yellow food was on the menu. Competitors had to eat yellow peppers, lemonade, a bowl of corn, soggy pretzels, crackers, cereal, a butterscotch pudding cup and chocolate coins wrapped in gold foil. To add difficulty to the relay, competitors were not allowed to use their hands while eating the corn or pudding.

Two tables were set up in the Finch gymnasium for the relay. Competing teams lined up on opposite side of the tables as the competition began.

The goal of the event is for each team to finish eating the eight foods as quickly as possible and to answer the question before the other team does. The team that comes in first place will be rewarded with 50 points toward winning either the Maroon Cup or the Golden Goblet in the Homecoming competition.

An Xbox 360 with a copy of Kinect Sports was set up in the corner for the teams that were not competing in the relay.