by Bill Bush
SEDGWICK—What sounded like a good idea to a dozen contestants Saturday afternoon turned sour as two-thirds of them dropped out before a winner emerged. That’s because three pounds of pickles is a lot to eat as fast as you can.
Credit goes to the younger generation though. No adults were brave enough to step forward and compete with all-minor-aged contestants.
In the end, Madison Ferguson swallowed her last pickle ahead of her three remaining competitors to win the championship. For her efforts, Ferguson received a Grand Champion certificate and an inflatable pickle. She kept the certificate and gave the inflatable to runner-up Braeden Luper.
Ferguson said she didn’t have a strategy going in. Toward the end, she was eating slow to keep the pickles down.
“I wanted to vomit the whole entire time,” Ferguson said. “It was a lot. Those pickles were just sitting in vinegar so they kind of burned my mouth.”
She said she used to like pickles a lot.
“Yeah, but now I’m not going to eat them anymore,” she said before pausing. “I might every once in a while.”
Several contestants said they were never eating pickles again as they walked away from the contest. Some of those same contestants were also seen leaving with their remaining pickles in a zip-lock bag.
