2008 Collegiate Nationals TV Schedule

* All times Eastern (EST)

The Collegiate Nationals on CBS
May 25th, 2pm-3pm
Beach Volleyball, Boxing, Snowboarding, Freeskiing, Flowboarding, and Eating

The Collegiate Nationals on CBS College Sports Network:
May 15th, 8pm-9pm
2008 Collegiate Nationals Preview Show

May 26th, 8pm-9pm
Collegiate Nationals Episode 1: Snowboarding, Boxing, San Diego Flowboard Preview

May 27th, 8pm-9pm
Collegiate Nationals Episode 2: Freeskiing, Boxing, Weightlifting

May 28th, 8pm-9pm
Collegiate Nationals Episode 3: Flowboarding Semis, Weightlifting, Music, Boxing

May 29th, 8pm-9pm
Collegiate Nationals Episode 4: Flowboarding Semis, Beach Volleyball Semi: San Diego vs. USC

May 30th, 8pm-9pm
Collegiate Nationals Episode 5: Beach Volleyball Semis Texas vs. Nebraska, Eating Finals

May 31st, 8pm-9pm
Collegiate Nationals Episode 6: Wakeboard Semis, UPA Women’s Final

June 1st, 8pm-9pm
Collegiate Nationals Episode 7: Beach Volleyball Final: Texas vs. USC, Wakeboard Finals

June 2th, 8pm-9pm
Collegiate Nationals Episode 8: Flowboarding Finals, UPA Open Finals, Music

June 7th, …

A Canadian university student known as Furious Pete took the top prize at a weekend eating championship in San Diego.

Peter Czerwinski, a fourth-year mechanical engineering student at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont., won the title of 2008 Collegiate Nationals Eating Champion and a $1,000 first prize on Saturday.

The competition was the first official eating contest for Furious Pete, so dubbed for the speed at which he can eat. He was the only Canadian to qualify for the event.

To win, Czerwinski wolfed down 3½ platters — each stacked with two hot dogs, two cheeseburgers and a quarter pound of french fries — in seven minutes.

The competition uses picnic-style rules, meaning the food must be eaten in the traditional manner. For example, this would prevent competitive eaters from wetting buns to make them easier to eat.

The second-place eating champ finished nearly three plates.

Read …

The battle lines were drawn Saturday as eating warriors from around North America faced off in a clash of iron-clad stomachs and heroic willpower.

But for the university’s personal gladiator, junior food science major Brian “Eatin'” Keaton, a plate of fast food turned out to be his Achilles’ heel.

Keaton took fifth place in the eating competition Saturday in San Diego at the Collegiate Nationals, a collection of college-themed competitions that also included sports such as beach volleyball, wakeboarding, boxing and weightlifting.

The eating competition required the seven contestants to eat as many plates of two half-pound hamburgers, a jumbo hot dog and a quarter-pound of fries as they could in seven minutes. Keaton, in what he called his hardest competition yet, made it through two plates. By contrast, the winner of the contest, who hailed from Canada, ate three-and-a-half plates.

Read full article in the Diamondback…

There were a lot of people who attended the Saturday finals of the Collegiate Nationals Eating Championship, but no one stood out like Furious Pete Czerwinski’s cheering section. That raucous crowd helped the amateur eater from Canada win his first ever eating championship.

There were seven contestants in Saturday’s finals; four were chosen from colleges around the country, while the other three earned their spot at the Friday’s qualifiers.

#1 Christian “Muscox” McCarthy (Kentucky), #2 “Iron” Pete Czerwinski (McMaster), #3 Carey “Powerhouse Poehlman (Montgomery Country CC), #4 Brian “Eatin” Keaton (Maryland), #5 Darrin “D Money” Wolff (San Diego City), #6 Ryan “Big Mac” McMillan (Mesa) and #7 Chris “Scary Spice” Hanson (Grossmont/SDSU) all competed in the competition.

Their opponent was a Wave House platter, which consisted of a hamburger, a hot dog, and a handful of fries. The contestants had to knock off as many plates as possible …

Tums, please.

The 12 men and one woman who stuffed as many french fries in their mouths as fast as humanly possible had, at times, that familiar look people get at the Thanksgiving table. They groaned. They burped. And they went back at it.

But this was no holiday feast. This was sport. A chance for the Big Time – or the Big Enchilada, if you will.

They were chewing and swallowing and burping and holding back possible regurgitation for a shot to go to the first-ever Collegiate Nationals Eating Championship, to be held today at Mission Beach.

The four finalists at last night’s qualifying event at RT’s Longboard Grill in Pacific Beach will now compete against each other and four of the top collegiate eaters from throughout the nation. The event, along with other Collegiate National competitions, such as volleyball, will even be on TV, on …

Instead, they perhaps compete for the camaraderie. Or, maybe, to carry on the ancient Greek ideal of the healthy body and healthy mind. Or they’re preparing themselves for greater tests: The battle of Waterloo, in a saying attributed to the Duke of Wellington, “was won on the playing fields of Eton.”

So it makes sense that, finally, there will be a made-for-TV collegiate eating championship. It will be staged Saturday in San Diego as part of the CBS-owned Collegiate Nationals, which also includes surfing in machine-made waves.

Read full article in USA Today…

Friday night’s for feasting – French fry feasting, to be specific. Drinks were flowing and food was flying at RT’s Longboard Grill in Pacific Beach, CA for the inaugural Collegiate Nationals Eating Championship. 13 collegiate food warriors with dreams of a $1000 cash purse gathered to chow their way through two-pound plates of French fries.

Arnie “Chowhound” Chapman, the Commissioner of Eating, was on hand to welcome the co-eds to the ranks of competitive eating. Wearing a “Food Warrior University” sweatshirt, the Chowhound solemnly explained the Eaters’ Oath: no chipmunking; no mashing, mushing, mutilating, or otherwise desecrating the food; no unhappy returns. Respect the food.

And with those words of wisdom, they were off, plowing their way through plate after plate of French fries.

Competitors were divided into three heats, with the top four overall times advancing to Saturday’s finals.

Darrin “D Money” Wolff of San Diego City …

A junior at the University of Maryland, College Park, Keaton can’t quite say what it was – the cheers of the crowd, Kobayashi’s unyielding …

He seemed a normal lad growing up in central New Jersey – quiet, studious, a bit of an appetite perhaps, but no predilection for superhuman feats.

Then he saw the TV show that changed his life.

“I couldn’t believe what I was seeing,” says Brian “Eatin'” Keaton.

He was watching the hot-dog-eating competition at Nathan’s Famous Coney Island on the Fourth of July seven years ago. That was when Takeru Kobayashi, a slender Japanese native, shot to fame by gorging himself on 50 hot dogs to win the contest. He went on to win the title five more years before finishing second last year to another world-record eater, Joey Chestnut of California.

“I was so impressed,” Keaton says. “I was inspired.”

A junior at the University of Maryland, College Park, Keaton can’t quite say what it was – the cheers of the crowd, Kobayashi’s unyielding gluttony or …

The 2007 Collegiate Nationals, saw the crowning of numerous champions and showcased lifestyle sports at the collegiate level. After the success of last year, the 2008 Collegiate Nationals event in San Diego will feature four events, as compared to last year when there were three competitions. This year, along with beach volleyball, flowboarding, and a music festival, a new addition will be the eating contest.

The flowboarding championship was an extremely successful event in 2007. The riders compete at San Diego’s famous Wave House, where they throw down on a 10-foot wave simulator known as Bruticus Maximus.

USC senior Derek Zemen went toe-to-toe with over 80 competitors last year at the Wave House, and emerged as the 2007 individual champion of the event.

“Winning this event gave me confidence, and it felt good to win a collegiate national championship,” said Zemen.

Zemen explained that though last year’s championship …