DuPage group attempts to set world record

The fluttering neon banner clearly visible from Warrenville Road hangs over what appears to be an innocent game of bag toss among friends.

In reality, the gathering symbolizes a much bigger endeavor.

As the banner proclaims, the players are in a quest for a world record. They aim to play for a full 24 hours to create an entry in the Guinness World Records.

The 24-hour goal creeps closer and closer.

Finally, there is less than one minute to go.

Five, four, three, two …

The clock runs out, but they must finish the 102nd game for their triumph to be legitimate.

One minute and 46 seconds later, Miles Bocianski and Devon Curry, both of Wheaton, along with Zachary Noffsinger and Sam Schwarts of Warrenville complete an apparently successful attempt at the Guinness World Record for the Longest Marathon Bag Toss.

“It feels pretty good,” Noffsinger says. “We’ve still got to wait for the confirmation, though. I don’t really care about the record, it was just fun.”

The four friends, who graduated from Wheaton Warrenville South together in 2009, began their quest at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 7, and stopped just over 24 hours later at 12:31:46 p.m. Wednesday, June 8.

The video records and charted verification of the group’s achievements must be sent to the Guinness World Record headquarters in London. If their attempt is verified, the friends will find out in the next six weeks and receive a certificate to commemorate their accomplishment.

Nearly a year ago, the group hatched a plan to create the record on an afternoon filled with bag toss that was much like this one.

“It just came to us one day,” Schwarts says.

“Nonchalantly,” Curry adds.

“We were just trying to think of something fun to do,” Schwarts says.

Schwarts, who first emailed Guinness World Records, hosted the event in his front lawn, where honking car horns and cheering schoolchildren helped keep up morale.

Per Guinness World Record specifications, the group is required to have two documented witnesses or time keepers present at all times. All aspects of play and pieces of equipment must be up to code in terms of bag toss regulations.

“We had to use exact regulation boards, which were actually a lot harder to find than we thought,” Schwartz says.

For every hour of play each player is allotted a five-minute break. But throughout the 24 hours the group only took three, 10-minute breaks, Schwarts said.

The boards themselves are stark white except for the Cubs logo emblazoned in the center of one, the logo of the Sox on the other. The bean bags they tossed were Chicago Bears- and Green Bay Packers-themed.

Schwarts and Curry comprise one team, trumping Bocianski and Noffsinger with 80 wins out of the group’s 102 games.

But this challenge has not been about rivalries.

The ground around them is littered with half-eaten bags of pretzels, french fries from McDonald’s, tubes of sunscreen and depleted water bottles.

“They have to come out and seed my lawn next week,” jokes Schwarts’ father, Mario, referring to the border of withering grass the boys have created around both boards.

A volleyball net strung up between the house and a tree displays a garbled message in curling neon orange tape once reading, “World Record.” Now, like the players, it seems tired.

“I look like a hobbit,” Schwarts says examining his bare, dusty feet.

Schwarts and his friends played bags through the night aided by the glow of streetlights and a cocktail of Red Bull, Monster and Five Hour Energy.

After hours of wet towels wrapped around their necks and well-wishers stopping by, a small group of spectators and parents claps and cheers as Schwarts sinks the final bag, wrapping up the score of Game 102 at 25-12 and ending the challenge.

After 24 hours of play, there is only one question: What now?

“Bags tournament at my house,” quips one of the group’s four spectators.

The silent consensus is pretty clear.

Maybe tomorrow.