Students stack up to set world record

Students at Sarasota School of Arts and Sciences spent their physical fitness period stacking up cups against the competition. 

The competition is the previous Guinness World Record of 592,292 people around the world stacking cups on the same day. Through the World Sport Stacking Association schools and groups from as far away as New Zealand participated in the day known as Stack UP! 2015. 

Stacking cups involved hand-eye coordination and a quick reaction reflex according to SSAS fitness teacher Hollie Nelsen. 

"The 6th graders really enjoy the competition and all the different things they can do with it," Nelsen said. "We also use it as part of our fitness class where we do different stations. We do relays and a lot of other things with the actually cup stacking. It’s not just standing at a table stacking the cups."

There are also rules and formation variations involved in cup stacking. One rule is that if one stack falls you cannot move onto the next formation until you fix it. You also need to alternate hands when stacking. 

Schools and groups from around the world have until next week to report and verify how many people they contributed to the total. According to the World Sport Stacking Association website, Sarasota School of Arts and Sciences contributed 123 people in all of the fitness classes to the total.