Eagle Dining Services hosted the first Meet and Sweets event at Lakeside Dining Commons tonight from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

The highlight of the event was the ice cream eating contest. Students had to eat as much of a banana split as they could within a time limit without using their hands.

The winner received $50 in Dining Dollars while participants were given $10 in Dining Dollars.

“I could use extra Dining Dollars and, either way, it’s still free ice cream,” Evan Rollins, senior political science major, said.

Students who signed up to participate could get their picture taken in the lobby in front of a blue background.

The first 15 students to sign up could participate. Thirteen signed up but only nine students were brave enough to suffer the brain freeze.

Andre Pierce, senior information systems major, was the winner of the contest by a landslide. He managed to get all the way down to the banana, despite fighting a brain freeze the entire time.

“I was born to do this,” Pierce joked with the emcee, Matthew Herman, marketing intern for Auxiliary Services.

Despite eating a few slices of pizza before the event, Pierce ate nearly the entire banana split.

The students received a lot of support and encouragement from the on-lookers at the event. Dining staff chanted phrases like “Feed the eagle!” and “You scream, I scream, we all scream for ice cream.”

For students still looking to get something cold and sweet, Amigo’s was temporarily converted to the Sweet Shop for the event. Different types of ice cream flavors, cones, floats, and cookies took over the Mexican-themed station.

Faxton Houlridge, a freshman pre-education middle grades major, said, “Why not do it? It’s fun, free and something different to do. I wish they’d told me I had to eat with my hands before I signed up though.”