MSU grad student one of world's top competitive eaters

EAST LANSING – Competition fuels Meredith Boxberger.

She found it in figure skating and hockey as a kid. She chased it into college as a softball player.

It's the same drive that pushes her to eat 26 hot dogs in 10 minutes.

"I love it, because it IS that adrenaline rush of sports again," said Boxberger, the waif-like 5-foot-8, 130-pound blonde known as "The Deep Fried Diva" around the Major League Eating circuit. "I got the same exact same feeling of being in a figure skating competition or playing a big game in softball."

As 29-year-old Boxberger walks across the Breslin Center on Friday with her diploma for an MBA in marketing from Michigan State University, a big-time job with a major candy company awaits her when she gets off the stage.

But so, too, does another season of competitive eating.

RANDOM PASSION

Boxberger was born in Ypsilanti and grew up in Plymouth before her father, Will, got transferred to the Toronto area when she was 11. She was homeschooled in Canada and earned a college softball scholarship to then-Division II Wayne State in Detroit. There, she played outfield from 2005 to '08 and earned All-Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference honors in 2007 and All-NCAA tournament region honors as a senior the following year.

She graduated from Wayne State with her business administration degree in 2008, then bought a Little Caesar's franchise near her Canadian hometown of Barrie. A few years in, the monotony of it got to her.

"It's like, you know when you reach a point in your life where you'll do anything," said her mother, Lorry. "What she was doing, she felt like she wasn't super, super happy."

Boxberger created a "life list" of random things she wanted to do and achieve. Plenty of normal things on it — traveling to all 50 states, owning a dog, writing a book, bowling a 200 game.

Taking part in an eating contest, for no good reason, was another. It was the second item she tried to check off the list, not long after her first — trying to become a vegetarian for a month, coincidentally — failed.

"It's pretty random," she admits with a laugh. "I've always been in traditional sports. I like the adrenaline of sports, but I've always eaten a lot. I was doing multiple sports at a time, and I was always eating."

Ironically enough, there happened to be a pizza eating competition nearby on Aug. 21, 2011 at Wood's Fired Pizza Joint in Barrie. Perfect, she thought.

She showed up, thinking it would be a small, local event. Then she saw world champion Takeru Kobayashi, recognized him from the Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest, and realized the scope of what she was getting herself into. Oh, and there was a driving rain storm going on at the same time.

First prize of $3,000 for the 12-minute display of gluttony went to Kobayashi, naturally. He ate 43 slices. Boxberger, surprisingly, finished third. She ate 21 pieces, won $500 and made an instant impression on the competitive eating community.

A month later, Meredith did it again. This time, in Toronto, it was 4.1 pounds of poutine in 10 minutes. A fourth-place finish and another $500.

She was hooked.

A STAR IS BORN

Online, Boxberger found an entire subculture and discovered the governing body of Major League Eating. She is now ranked No. 17 in the world, fourth among women globally and first among men or women in Canada.

"I just kind of got on a roll with it," Boxberger said, "and kept on going. I never thought that three years later I'd be ranked in Major League Eating."

The list of her carnage is at once impressive and frightening.

Boxberger has eaten 23½ moon pies in eight minutes. She's devoured 82 wings in 10 minutes to win $200. In October of 2013, she choked down 9 pounds of poutine in the same amount of time for $250. Her total earnings so far: $6,000.

She says it can be physically taxing to eat that much at that pace, yet Boxberger still maintains a stick-like figure. It requires being mindful of what she eats outside of competition, eating light leading up to and in the days following contests, and making sure to get in plenty of running and exercise both before and after.

"The main concern is health — are you doing this in a healthy way?" she said. "I try to tell people that it's moved away from being a bunch of huge guys sitting around a table constantly eating. … It's filled with a lot of people who take very good care of their bodies, which is this dichotomy of what competitive eating is. It helps to be in good cardiovascular shape to do this."

Her first shot at the big one, the Nathan's hot dog contest, came on July 4, 2012 at Brooklyn's Coney Island. She ate 21½ in 10 minutes and finished fourth in the women's division, setting a new Canadian record and taking home $1,500. She repeated the finish again in 2013, this time upping her total to 26 hot dogs. Last year, she ate 18 and finished fifth in the women's division.

"She's just always been a competitive person. And especially if it's something that guys are doing," her mother said. "I honestly had to walk away at one point in time. I stand there and I cheer her on, and I think, 'What am I doing?' But this is what she wanted to do. And she's smart enough to know when to chill out."

MORE FOOD AHEAD

Boxberger decided to return to college at MSU for her advanced marketing degree in the fall of 2013 and continued to compete in the summers and whenever time allowed.

As she started going through the job interview process, she dreaded that companies would Google her name and find out about her quirky competitive side, so she didn't bring it up. MSU professor Glenn Omura told her to use that unique quality to market herself to prospective employers.

"That's pretty unique," Omura said. "As we know in marketing, if you can find something to differentiate you, your market will be more responsive. They'll at least remember you. And they find out this individual, this person is more interesting than a resume and an MBA student."

Boxberger called it "a turning point" in her job hunt. She landed an internship last summer at the headquarters of Mars Candy Inc., in Mount Olive, N.J. And she impressed them enough to get a job offer — she's moving to the New York area shortly after graduation to begin her marketing career.

On Tuesday at What Up Dawg? in East Lansing, Boxberger did the store's hot dog contest. Derek McBaine, a fellow MBA student who also is graduating from MSU, ate alongside her. The challenge: finish nine loaded hot dogs in 20 minutes.

McBaine gave up after 7 1/2 hot dogs and with about 30 seconds left. Boxberger by then had finished them all, scooping up the leftover toppings and swigging her beer after about 13 minutes.

"The moment when I felt the meat sweats," McBaine said, still flushed in the face, "I had to tap out. Too much. Meredith's an animal. Well done."

Omura, the acting associate dean for the MBA and professional Master's programs at MSU's Eli Broad College of Business, said part of Boxberger's appeal in the business world is that companies want to bring in champions — whatever their specialty.

"Everybody is interested in that particular feat. No one can believe it, particularly when you look at her. ... Meredith's not real little, but then she doesn't look like a champion eater, either," Omura said. "What is it about her? Because she's Quixotic. What makes her a champion? And pretty soon, you find out she's pretty interesting. And oh, by the way, she's pretty smart, too."

The move also means she'll be a lot closer for this summer's Nathan's hot dog championship. Qualifiers start soon. She's hoping to return to the "Super Bowl of Eating" once again, swigging water between every gobble of meat and bun she takes.

And there is only one goal: To win it this time.

"Competitive eating isn't really something that can support you. It's a good hobby," she said, laughing. "It's a crazy sport. It's afforded me a lot of things that I never thought possible."