LATHROP – Joey Chestnut. Kobayashi. Jordan Neely?

The 13-year-old Lathrop product managed to choke down nearly an entire medium pizza in less than five minutes Saturday afternoon in one of several eating contests held as part of the third annual Big BBQ Competition at Valverde Park.

His success earned him a gift card as well as a rousing round of applause from the crowd, stunned that only one piece remained in the box that sat right in front of him.

It didn’t hurt that pizza was his favorite food.

“I’ve always wanted to try something like this and when I heard about it today I knew I had to try it,” Neely said. “The trick is to chew as fast as you can and swallow the big pieces.

“This is the first time that I’ve ever won a ribbon, so this is great.”

Other eating competitions throughout the day included both pie and watermelon. It was the first time that organizers offered the events as a way to improve upon the community-wide event, which they expected to draw nearly 1,000 people this year.

A hot dog eating contest kicked things off at the start of the day.

For Kevin Russ, the pizza eating competition was the perfect confluence of convenience and competition. He missed his lunch so the opportunity to eat a free pizza was too good to pass up. He said he always wanted to be a part of an eating contest.

“I heard the announcement over the loudspeaker and I was hungry so it just seemed like the perfect fit. Plus I love pizza, so I’m really looking forward to this,” said Russ, who has seen people like Chestnut and Kobayashi battle it out on Coney Island for the annual hot dog eating championship. “I think that this is something that I can actually win. I’m going to tear that pizza up.”

Situated on a ledge above the basketball courts in Valverde Park, the contest table became the center of attention during each of the contests with parents and friends and other onlookers packing the real estate around the area.

It was the atmosphere surrounding the pie eating contest that drew in Jamie Volk. She is a third time attendee of the event that says she was glad to see new additions to the program that only make the event better.

“I think the eating competitions are a lot of fun to watch,” she said. “This is a great event for Lathrop, and I’m just glad that this is continuing to get better each and every year. This is going to start drawing even more people from throughout the area, and that’s a great thing for the city.”