Halloween came a day early as the Associated Students hosted its 29th annual Halloween Costume and pie eating contest on Thursday, Oct. 30.

The Quad was filled with students dressed in costumes ranging from traditional ghouls to celebrities, pop culture icons, anime characters and even the Harlem Globetrotters.

Appropriate Halloween themed music set the mood and current pop hits brought in the crowd. Many gathered in front of the library to watch the pie eating contest and Halloween costume contest.

Despite a lack of student participation in the past few events on the Quad, A.S. President Jose Solano and Inter Club Council President Mariah Duran believe the event is beneficial to the campus as it brings students together and allows a time for them to relax and have fun.

“This is a way for students to express themselves for Halloween and show some school spirit that we lack,” Duran said.

Duran added that the Halloween event drew more of a crowd than previous events throughout the semester such as club rush.

“For these [Halloween event] there is more people participating than club rushes. People tend to be more entranced with this event,” Duran said. “Which could help in getting more student involvement in other events.”

As a total of 10 students battled it out by stuffing their face in a pumpkin pie topped with whip cream, only contestant Matthew Schuessler proved to be the fastest as he ate his whole pie before everyone else.

“I literally came from physics when I heard the pie contest was about to start,” Schuessler said. “I decided to enter because I like pumpkin pie and I wanted to kick ass.”

Schuessler believes that his experience in competing in two other food eating contests helped him. One of the contests involved a three pound pulled pork sandwich in which he did not place.

Schussler received a $25 gift card to the campus bookstore for winning first place and plans on using his winnings to buy Pop-Tarts.

Students gathered around the stage to watch as 25 contestants consisting of students and staff stood in a single file line awaiting their turn to walk the runway and show off their costumes to the judges.

In the end, the judges decided to award students who dressed up as Anna and Elsa from Disney’s Frozen third place with a $25 Sodexo gift card. Sisters Janice Flores and Jessica Flores dressed up as a Piranha Plant and Mario respectively from Super Mario and won second place with a $50 gift card to Sodexo.

The first place prize for the costume contest was a $70 gift card to Sodexo which was awarded to a group of business professors who dressed up as the Harlem Globetrotters, a decision that didn’t sit too well with some of the costume contestants.

“Their [Harlem Globetrotters] costume was good and they deserve to win but the prize should go to a student,” said Lex Love, contestant.

Overall, most students were thankful for the event as it allowed them to have some fun before Halloween.

“I’m glad they [A.S.] do this, it allows me to take a breather from the stresses of classes,” said Eric Gonzales, student.