OCEAN CITY — Russ Crotts will not be celebrated among the pantheon of winners. He will not be in the spotlight.
That may be good; Crotts’s face was so covered in pie that it was difficult to make out his features.
Crotts will be known as the guy who finished as the runner-up in the adult division of the July 1 Wacky Wednesday pie-eating contest.
He was deeply contemplative about his loss in the competition that took well under a minute.
Truth be told, he was looking forlorn, though that was tough to discern because of all the fruit and crust from the Tastykake pie hiding his expression.
“I tried to get as much pie on my face as possible so I’d have to eat less,” Crotts explained.
He’s not truly a two-time loser because he did come away with a second-place ribbon, the second time he finished second.
What will he need to do to reach the pinnacle of the pie-eating world?
“That’s a good question,” he replied, looking thoughtful, or at least what thoughtful would like like after he used a napkin to wipe away the sweet detritus.
“There is going to be a lot of introspection on my end,” Crotts said. “I really need to go back to the drawing board, look at my technique and figure out what I need to improve on.”
Jason Wells, who was competing next to him, beat Crotts to the punch, winning well before him and more than a dozen other adults.
He had almost no pie on his face. Wells used the Hoover technique.
“I just kind of ate it and sucked it up. You had to kind of suck it up,” he explained. Asked what prompted him to compete, he looked over into the crowd. “My wife,” he said. “I was volun-told to do this. My wife made me.”
At least he made her proud, right? “Yes, I did,” he replied with a grin.
Abigail Ogren and Reese Fisher, both 6.5 and from Ocean City, enjoyed the pie-eating in the second-youngest division, though it was a little difficult getting extended answers from the girls.
How was the pie, Abby? “Good.”
Did you have fun? “Yes.”
What about you, Reese? Did you enjoy it? “Yes.”
Asked about their favorite part, it took some cogitation but they answered at the same time, talking over each other. “This is a thing that I never get to do at my home,” one said. “We can smash our head and it will be fantastic, but that didn’t happen,” the other chimed in, though it wasn’t clear what she meant.
“I didn’t even swallow,” the first added. “I don’t want a prize. I just wanted to eat it.”
Twelve-year-old Nathan Vazquez from Lancaster, Pa., won his division and neighboring pie contestant Grant Leocha, 12, from Pennsylvania, came in second.
Asked about his technique, Grant said, “I just like to eat as much as I can.”
Nathan was more specific. “My uncle told me to flip it over so I flipped it over and I got as much as I could (in my mouth) without swallowing, then I swallowed a little, then ate more.”
He had not competed before and wasn’t even planning to compete this time.
“I came here with my cousins and they handed me a plate,” Nathan said. “I’m like, ‘Sure, I’ll try.’”
In a teenage division, Madison Minervini, 17, of Waldwick, was pragmatic about the competition, though it took a while to get an answer out of her so she could finish all the pie packed into her pie-hole.
Her technique was straightforward: “just shoving it into my mouth.”
Why did she take part? I wanted food and I was hungry,” Madison said, smiling.
James Buono was another champion, taking the final heat. He was motivated.
His goal? “To just win a medal.” His technique: “Just shoving it into your mouth and you got it.” He got it, all right – a blue ribbon.
Justin Juliano, the emcee for the event and Ocean City’s manager of public relations and information, kept things rolling with a lively banter as a crowd of family members and friends watched the competitors and cheered them on.
He said there always is a lot of enthusiasm for the contest.
“It was another successful pie-eating, an annual July 4th (week) tradition to kick off Wacky Wednesday,” Juliano said. “Our adults are the most competitive division with record times each year, and the kids have fun, too.
“We love doing these every week, getting people up to the Music Pier, starting their day off on a Wednesday and bringing people and families together,” he said. “They have a little family competition every year. We always have them come back year after year and usually a new defending champion.”
Wacky Wednesday events take place at 10:30 a.m. every week through July and most of August in the Music Pier loggia at Moorlyn Terrace and the Boardwalk. July 8 is taffy sculpting; July 15, French fry sculpting; July 22, Christmas in July crafting; July 29, soft pretzel sculpting; Aug. 5, Prince and Princess Party making crowns; Aug. 12, donut sculpting; and Aug. 19, cookie sculpting.
– STORY and PHOTOS by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
