Students at Evergreen Heights Elementary School took part in the third annual World Sport Stacking Association Stack Up! last Thursday.

Sport stacking – described as a “track meet for your hands at warp speed” – challenges kids to stack and take down specially designed cups called speed stacks in predetermined sequences as fast as they can.

Stackers race against the clock and compete in relays as they up-stack and down-stack various pyramids of cups in prescribed patterns for at least 30 minutes.

For the third consecutive year, Guinness World Records billed it as the “world’s largest sport stacking event.” Last year, an official count of 143,530 stackers participated to break the first Stack Up! record set in 2006. An early unofficial count has this year’s total surpassing the mark.

Evergreen students – from the Head Start program to the fifth grade – were among the thousands of stackers contributing their skills from throughout the United States and around the world in the record attempt in one day.

The sport is in more than 25,000 schools and youth organizations worldwide. It is appealing to teachers and students because it’s easy to learn but challenging to master. The sports tests reaction time, hand-eye coordination, concentration and focus.