Brandon Simpson, head swimming coach, is not afraid to go over the top.

That is why during the boys swim team’s recent mannequin challenge video, Simpson and his swimmers incorporated numerous different aquatic toys along with some acrobatics. There was an underwater birthday party, trombones being played, chicken fighting and divers half submerged in the water, just to name a few of the details of the video.

“It worked out great for our schedule,” Simpson said.  “We had pictures that same day which take a ton of time and there are a ton of teams doing the challenge right now.  There are even some swimming magazines and websites that are giving out cash prizes for some videos.”

The swimmers spent a few days beforehand planning out what each of them wanted to pose as for the video. Then they did a few practice runs before the actual video was shot. Simpson, a swimmer himself, got in the water and used a GoPro camera in order to get the underwater shots.

“My favorite part about the mannequin challenge was being ‘frozen’ underwater and also watching the whole video come together in the end,” Bennett Junkins, sophomore, said.

Junkins was part of the underater birthday party portion of the video.

One of the more impressive features according to many of the swimmers was suspending divers from the ceiling. Simpson called upon one of his friends who owns climbing ropes that were adequate for holding a person upside down.

After the video was shot, it was put up on the swim team’s twitter page and it went viral for a short period of time. The video’s intent was to be a fun and unique team bonding experience, while also taking part in what, at the time of the video, was a worldwide challenge. The mannequin challenge frenzy has died down since.