As chunks of apple pie swam down Leon Taryan’s face, he knew it was either he or the pie that was going down that day — and that day, it was the pie.

Monday, October 17, was the first day with Great Neck North’s Spirit Week, but most importantly, the day of everyone’s favorite Spirit Week event: The Pie Eating Contest. As the student body rushed outside after the 9th-period bell rang, ending the school day, all were eager to watch two representatives from each grade attempt to devour an apple pie faster than the person next to him. Hundreds gathered around the four tables set up on the front lawn to get a glimpse of their classmates competing in an all-out food consumption showdown. Seniors gladly pushed their way through the crowd as excited underclassmen were shoved to the side. As noted by their lack of concern for those around them, this event clearly meant more to the seniors than just a pie-eating competition. Yet to most of North High, the true reasons as to why the Seniors pounded so ferociously on the tables and hollered like primitive beasts in the middle of what seemed to be a harmless edible expedition, is still mostly a great mystery.

Perhaps it’s a combination of pie goo and intense emotions that cause the student body, and especially the senior class, to go nuts for pie eating. Or possibly it’s a sense of nostalgia, the longing for a time when we were younger and pie eating contests were nothing of serious organized competition, but rather just means of juvenile recreation. Most likely though, it’s the school spirit that gets everyone riled up, as class-nationalism is the safest, and best type of nationalism.

Just ask the Seniors, who roared with intense excitement the moment Rebecca Yaminian licked off the last sliver of pie from the tin tray with her two hands tied around her back. Or maybe ask the Juniors, who were on the verge of tears upon finding out that their beloved eating athletes fell short of all the other classes. The final results in the order that they finished came to be: Seniors, Sophomores, Freshmen and then Juniors. For now, we Blazers are left with the sweet smell of pie on the front lawn and the taste of either victory or defeat as we wait with anticipation for next year’s beginning day of Spirit Week.