Based on preliminary results, the students at Suncrest Elementary School in Orem are holders of a new Guinness World Record.

About 200 Suncrest students took part in an around-the-world effort of mostly schoolchildren on Nov. 13 to set a new world record in the relatively new sport of speed stacking.

Called a "track meet for your hands at warp speed," speed stacking is where students up stack and down stack 12 cups in predetermined sequences as fast as they can, according to the World Sport Stacking Association, which organized last week's event.

Nanette Jensen, a physical education teacher at Suncrest Elementary, helped former school principal John Patten apply for a grant last spring that awarded the school with $400 in Sports Stack equipment for use in P.E. classes and the school's after-school 4-H stacking club.

"I saw a story on the TV news a couple of years ago about a Provo speed stacking club," she said. "It's just amazing. It's incredibly fast."

Children in Jensen's P.E. classes and the after-school club went through two to three days of instruction this fall learning the cup sequencing and timing themselves to increase their speed using the school's 31 speed stacking sets.

On Thursday, the stackers formed lines in the school gym at the stacking tables and joined with 25,000 other schools to beat last year's record of 143,530, the number of the most people sport stacking at multiple locations in one day. Erin Thomas, the school's teacher on special assignment, assisted Jensen and acted as an official witness to the school's contributions toward the record.

"We turned on some music ... it was fun and way hyper," Jensen said. "The kids go crazy stacking, they love to do it ... and they're getting faster, faster, faster."

A running tally on the WSSA's Web site of people who participated in last week's tournament of 199,936 as of Tuesday indicates Suncrest students' cup stacking efforts paid off.

Aside from the fun, Jensen said speed stacking has several educational applications. Kids improve their hand-eye coordination, get to use both sides of their brains and learn to focus their attention on a specific task. Even children as young as kindergarten were able to participate in Thursday's record breaker. She's also observed that there appears to be some type of correlation between kids who are struggling academically and slower-than-average stacking times. That allows Jensen to give those students more attention.

Interestingly, some of the fastest stackers aren't students who excel at athletics. That provides other Suncrest Elementary kids an opportunity to shine, Jensen said.

"Kids are like, 'Where can I buy these, where can I get these?' " she said. "We don't usually get that with soccer balls."

The speed stacking gives the children a chance to increase their thinking abilities and self-esteem in a way video games never could, Jensen said. Patten dubbed the activity "Nintendo or video games without electricity," in his grant proposal.

"I think it gives them the confidence and ability that they can do anything and participate beyond being a regular kid," Jensen said. "With a little set of speed stackers, you became a world record holder."

For more information about speed stacking, go to www. speedstacks.com.