LEWISBURG, Pa. — Thursday was just another day at practice for the Bucknell University men's swimming and diving team. The program has been getting a lot of attention lately, but it's for something that recently happened outside of the pool.
It all started Monday night when the team attended the men's basketball team's game against Lehigh University. The swimmers and divers planned to wear speedos under their clothes.
"When Lehigh came to the foul line in the second half, we were planning to take off our shirts, take off our pants, and 'woo' towards the free throw shooter to get them to miss the free throw," junior Chris Kopac said.
And that's exactly what they did.
The game was televised on CBS Sports. The network showed the swimmers and divers multiple times.
"We're the swim team. We wear speedos. Some people may have more of a reaction to it than others, but we don't really care. We just thought it would be funny to support the basketball team and try to distract the other team," said sophomore Jack Krug.
And it worked.
"They ended up missing," Krug said. "I didn't count, but it was at least two to three free throws."
The moment went viral and was also shown on ESPN.
"It's super cool to see something we did go that far," Kopac said.
When you're wearing speedos on national television, you never know who will be watching.
"My parents were a little confused at first, but they found it super funny and were proud of me," Kopac added.
Dan Schinnerer, the head swimming and diving coach, says it's kind of a tradition for the team to do things like this.
"I think it also shows that the Bucknell student/athletes are here to support each other, have some fun, and so I think it was relatively tasteful but also in good nature and a lot of fun," Schinnerer said.
Unfortunately, Bucknell lost that basketball game, but the swimmers and divers say they plan to keep supporting their fellow student/athletes.