Pumpkin Plunge returns to Utah State

This year, the Pumpkin Plunge returned to Utah State University with a splash. Students dressed in Halloween costumes ranging from Founding Fathers to cartoon characters filled the HPER diving pool room on Oct. 28 to compete for the top three best diving performances.  

Participation in the event was free and open to all students. The only requirement was to go dressed in costume. Spectators were also welcome to come and cheer on the divers. 

Macy Gustavus, coordinator of aquatics & safety at USU and the brains behind the event, said she was excited to see the competition be held on campus for the second year in a row.  

“When students were polled last year and asked what campus rec events they wanted to see come back this next year, this was one of those events,” Gustavus said. “It’s cool to see this maybe become a tradition in real time.” 

Gustavus said she got the idea for the event just last year while watching Red Bull Flugtag and diving competitions, but she wanted to put a unique Halloween spin on it. 

“Red Bull has so many fun events, and I thought that is such an easily translatable thing we can do here,” Gustavus said. “It’s taking something silly and festive and making it university-sanctioned.” 

Competitors were critiqued by a panel of judges, including two members from the USU Swim and Dive Club and this year’s Miss USU Allie Berry. Community engagement and crisis response K-9 Officer Sage and her handler Officer Shane Nebeker also made a guest-judging appearance.  

According to Gustavus, this year, they wanted to simplify the judging rubric. Judges were looking for creativity in costumes and diving performances, not perfect technique.  

“This year, we also integrated walkout songs,” Gustavus said. “It will be a little less complicated on the scoring side but a little more fun on the ‘highlighting people who are jumping’ side.” 

Judges rated each performance out of 20, each having up to 10 points to award to costumes and up to 10 to award to performances. The top three scorers received boo baskets as a prize.  

This year’s first place winners were Cohen Nielson and William Gardener, dressed up as what they called the “Jazz Guys.” The duo wore oversized suits and declined using a walkout song, instead encouraging the audience to snap along with them as they toppled their way off the diving boards. 

“It’s fun to see people come together and just laugh and have a good time,” Gustavus said. “It’s fun to watch students get to be people outside of the classroom or outside of work and do something that you wouldn’t really see anywhere else.”  

Other competitors also highlighted the silly and carefree nature of the event, saying they encourage more students to attend next year.  

“I even met a new friend today, and he was also dressed as a Founding Father,” said Robert Tolman, who competed as George Washington. “We didn’t plan it, but we decided to jump together, and it was a blast.” 

Millie Hardy said participating in the plunge was fun and easy, especially when it came to putting a costume together.  

“It’s just something I found in my closet and threw together,” Hardy said. “I saw a lot of good belly flops and over rotations, and it was very enjoyable to watch. This event was a 10 out of 10. I’d for sure come back.” 

Gustavus said one of her favorite parts of this event is the way it can bring together a variety of students from a variety of different groups on campus.  

“There was no one defining factor on why people showed up. It was people from all over,” Gustavus said. “I liked that it brings people together in a common space to do something fun.” 

One of the main goals of the event, according to Gustavus, was to highlight campus recreation and HPER building resources.  

“The HPER pools are a really great asset to the campus community, and I feel like a lot of people don’t know they exist,” Gustavus said.  

Gustavus encourages students to take advantage of campus recreation resources and the community they can create because “school isn’t only about academics.” 

“Campus rec as a whole and the professionals who work in this department are really dedicated to making sure that students have a good time while they’re in college,” Gustavus said. “If students want it, we will do it, and we just want to remind everyone that we are here.”