Hot dog! What a contest

Austin Bartek is used to difficult lifts.

In addition to competing in football, track and wrestling at Eisenhower High, Bartek, 15, does power lifting.

But on Friday, lifting the 12th hot dog to his mouth proved too much. Thankfully, his 10 minutes of work held up.

Bartek won the open tournament in Lawton’s first hot dog eating contest at Lawton Fort Sill Freedom Festival in Elmer Thomas Park. He ate 11 hot dogs and buns, matching Lawton Deputy City Manager Dewayne Burk’s tally. Burk won the VIP contest.

“I thought they were good,” Burk said. “Now, having the buns with the water wasn’t that great. But that’s what you’ve got to do. You have to get that bread mushy so it goes down easier.”

Bartek used a similar, unsavory strategy to power his way to victory, to the delight of about 100 onlookers in various states of glee and astonishment.

Michell Rosario, the Lawton Community Event Outreach Coordinator, is hoping the inaugural competition can pave the way for many more dogs to be downed in the future.

“This is the first time and we are so excited,” Rosario said. “I mean, we had a great showing. This is a large crowd for a hot dog eating contest. So that’s really good. We ended up with 12 contestants. So that’s a good showing for us to send to the nationals.”

Rosario said that now the contest has been going for a year, future contests can serve as a launching pad for people to qualify for the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest contested each year on Independence Day in New York. The next national champion could hail from Lawton.

Despite their winning performances, Bartek and Burk are a far cry from the world record 76 hot dogs that Joey Chestnut consumed in 10 minutes at Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest in 2021.

Burk said he isn’t sure if he’ll even eat another hot dog for a while.

“I’m supposed to go to a couple barbecues this weekend,” Burk said. “I don’t know if I’ll eat any.”