ELLSWORTH – Crowds gathered at East End Park on June 24 for what has become one of Ellsworth’s most competitive events of the year.

The cheese curd eating contest is an annual competition at the Cheese Curd Festival that consists of contestants competing to see how fast they can devour half a pound of fresh cheese curds. Fans of the event that have witnessed it for years may be aware of the dominance of one man: Alex Smrekar.

Blaine, Minn. Resident Smrekar has won nine of the last 10 men’s individual competitions, citing showboating as the reason for the only loss. The individual competition is not the only place Smrekar has shined, dominating the tag-team category as well, winning in all 10 of his attempts.

Smrekar took home the individual title in just under a minute this year, but did not top his career best time of 54 seconds.

Smrekar competes with a different teammate each year, creating more great memories.

“I made one rule that I’d never do the same teammate twice,” Smrekar said. “I had an 80-year-old man be my teammate one time, and that was the closest I’ve ever come to losing.”

Organized eating competitions are not something Smrekar has always done, but growing up, eating was always a battle.

“When we eat it’s always a competition, that’s the way it was,” Smrekar said. “The brother always wanted to beat me, always wanted to beat me. You can’t beat me.”

During Smrekar’s time in the military, he took part in eating competitions in which people would compete to see how fast they could eat food such as nachos.

Smrekar’s passion for competitive eating started while at a buffet with wife Emily Stigall. After eating, the two found out about a chicken wing eating competition that (wife) asked him to join.

“We just ate a buffet, but they had a chicken wing eating contest,” Smrekar said. “The wife, when she tells you to do it you do it. Doesn’t matter how full you are.”

Smrekar did not take home the title during the competition; however, a second-place finish when he ate a buffet just before the competition gave him confidence that he could have success in more contests and challenges.

Smrekar’s advice to someone that is looking to get into the competitive eating game is to make sure it is something you want to do. The challenges can often be daunting, and he said people who give up easily will not make it.

Comparing competitive eating to dancing, Smrekar said once you get into it, it is not easy to quit.

“Everybody wants to dance when you go to the club, but it takes a lot of energy to let people judge you,” Smrekar said. “But once you get on the dance floor, you can’t get off. It’s too damn fun.”

Smrekar has picked up contest wins such as the Spring Lake Park pizza eating contest, and has lost others such as a burger eating contest. The biggest challenge of contests for Smrekar is that you never know how good the opponents are going to be. In scenarios such as the burger contest, Smrekar posted a time he was proud of, but it was not enough to take home a victory.

“Got destroyed, but I did have a great time,” Smrekar said. “Contests are tough because you never know, and you just do your best and you try to make a fool of yourself so people can laugh at you.”

Outside of competitions against opponents, Smrekar has yet to lose an eating challenge, at times eating up to five pounds.

While Smrekar gets a lot of enjoyment out of these competitions, it is actually his wife who caught the bug for him to keep doing these competitions.

Smrekar began to find ways to improve, looking to become the best that he could be. For larger eating challenges Smrekar trains a day or two in advance, but for faster eats, Smrekar has one simple trick.

“I’ll just try to slam bottles of water,” Smrekar said. “It’s the best training for a speed eat. You just want to train your esophagus to open up and stay open.”

Smrekar said his one message to people that go to eating contests is to get loud to cheer people on. He believes competitors and fans should be able to have fun, but it is difficult to do without the support.

One of the biggest thrills for Smrekar is having a crowd of people cheering him and his competitors on. When he first started competing at the Cheese Curd Festival, there were around 100-200 fans looking on. The competition has grown right along with the rest of the festival.

“The first year there was maybe a couple hundred people there,” Smrekar said. “This year there was at least 500 people watching.”