When Jeff Hicks and Kylie Opelt heard about a chance to win $2,500, they knew they couldn’t pass it up.
Even if it meant they had to be the last ones standing in “Liplock 2005,” an annual kissing contest on Feb. 11 at Knoxville Center Mall in which participants are required to stay lip-to-lip with their partners until only one couple remains.
“Kylie and I are very competitive,” Hicks, senior in advertising, said. “We knew we were going to win when it was down to the last two couples.”
After six hours and one minute of mouth-to-mouth contact, Hicks and Opelt were declared the 2005 Liplock winners.
“This was the first time we’d done anything like this,” Hicks said. “We’ve only been dating six months.”
Hicks and Opelt, junior in economics and finance at Ohio State, were required to stand inside a square of tape for the duration of the competition without any eating, drinking, separating or bathroom breaks.
“If your lips come apart at any time, you lose,” Hicks said. “You can’t even lean against anything either.”
Opelt said she and Hicks kept themselves well entertained throughout the day, despite the contest’s limitations.
“We were dancing, listening to music, reading — anything we could do to keep each other awake,” Opelt said. “We were on the cell phone chatting to our friends and family. That was hard because we had to be lip-to-lip the whole time.
“Channel 8 actually did an interview with us while we were still kissing.”
Hicks even brought along his yo-yo to delight those who stopped by to check out the contest.
“I did several yo-yo tricks to entertain the crowd and myself,” he recalled. “I did tricks off to the side and a couple string tricks behind Kylie’s back.”
Opelt said the height difference between her and Hicks was the biggest obstacle the two had to overcome.
“The hardest part was that he’s a lot taller than me — he’s 5’11”, I’m 5’3” — so I had to lean back the whole time.”
Hicks added, “Both of our backs really hurt afterwards, and her neck was sore because she had to arch up.”
The two prepared for the competition in advance, Hicks said, by not drinking anything after midnight the night before and eating fruit for breakfast before the 11 a.m. contest began.
“We made sure not to lock our knees, too,” he said. “One couple did that, and the girl passed out after just an hour or so.”
Hicks and Opelt had special signals in the occurrence of unavoidable circumstances like yawning or sneezing.
“I had to yawn once, so I told Kylie, and we squeezed our heads together so we didn’t lose contact,” Hicks said.
Opelt said many people, including her boss, came by to watch the competition.
“There were also a lot of old people watching,” she said. “You could tell they didn’t approve, because they were just shaking their heads.”
But it was all worth it in the end, Hicks said, as the couple walked away $2,500 richer, or rather $1,900 after they generously gave $600 to the second-place winners.
“They were here almost as long as we were,” Hicks said. “We felt like they deserved it.
“We got the money in cash, and a security guard walked us out,” Hicks added. “We kind of felt like gangsters, walking out with all that money.”
Hicks and Opelt will spend their prize money broadening their cultural horizons in Europe. The couple has planned a 45-day excursion to Amsterdam, Barcelona, Prague and other various European cities this summer.
