By STELLA KIM / SKIM@SOUNDPUBLISHING.com

BREMERTON – A Bremerton mother and her two daughters are focused on the art of stacking and unstacking cups as swiftly as possible – a competitive activity known as “sport stacking.”

The trio participated at the US National/Washington State Sport stacking championship in Auburn in March.

Sport stacking, also known as “cup stacking,” is when specialized cups are stacked in specific sequences as blazingly fast as possible.

Dawn Burns, 31, and her two daughters, Alexandria, 7, and Mackenzie, 5, won a total of 16 medals. At age 4, Mackenzie was the youngest stacker at the competition. Sister Alexandria, age 6 at the time, has a potential state and national record which is pending video approval from the World Sport Stacking Association.

“The girls and I have been practicing at home for at least an hour a day,” Burns said.

The cups are stacked in a pyramid fashion, such as two cups on the bottom and one on top – known as a “3” – or three on the bottom, two in the middle and one on the top – a “6” – all the way up to 10-cup pyramids.

Several pyramids together form a sequence, such as a 3-3-3 or 3-6-3.

A cycle sequence is a longer stack that has multiple parts to it: It starts with a 3-6-3 which leads directly into a 6-6 stack and ends with a 1-10-1 stack. When the 1-10-1 is “downstacked” it will end up in a 3-6-3 formation, Burns explained.

“It is both an individual and team sport where you stack specially designed cups in specific sequences as fast as you can. In competitions you compete in individual events, doubles events (where one person does the moves for one hand and the other person does the moves for the other hand), and there are also team relay events,” Burns said.

The three competed in Kansas City, Missouri, in April for another tournament and they all won several medals. They also qualified to compete in the Junior Olympics which  will be held in Hampton Roads, Virginia, from July 30-Aug. 1.

“Our new goal is to hopefully do really well at the Junior Olympics so we can be invited to join Team USA,” Burns said.

“I got into sport stacking way back in 2008. My husband’s family had a set of cups at Christmas that everyone was playing around with it. I was hesitant to try it at first, but when I finally did, I realized that I was pretty fast,” Burns said.

“Someone in his family mentioned that they held tournaments so I looked it up and found one that I went to. I then started a family and kind of got out of the sport, but this past school year I decided to introduce it to my students at my school,” Burns said.

Burns teaches the 4th grade at Kitsap Lake Elementary. She teaches the game to students during recess. Her school participated in The World Sport Stacking Associations Stack Up event, which is an event held each year to have the most people sport stacking throughout the world on the same day.

“Sport stacking is very challenging. Once the basic sequences are learned it is easy, but trying to go as fast as you can makes it hard. If you make the slightest mistake it really impacts your time, so working toward being consistent is very hard. It is a sport that takes a lot of practice because it could take a lot of time practicing to beat your personal best times. Also, in a tournament situation you have three tries to get your best time and set records.”