Nik Fritz is dancing with an extra partner this year…and that partner isn’t human. It isn’t even alive. Nik Fritz is dancing with a HUGE red blowup dinosaur — a T-Rex to be exact.

Fritz is a senior dancing with the Snowboard Club, for which he’s the Primary THON Chair, and with his red companion, he’s making the most of it of his experience.

Fritz was smart to bring along his blowup dinosaur, because he’s got some experience dancing in THON. The dinosaur stems from the club’s THON shirts that, three years ago, featured a dinosaur in its logo.

Last year, the dinosaur was bought by the team’s female dancer. To keep the dinosaur tradition alive, she passed the iconic item down to Fritz. And while it’s not the only blowup dinosaur on the floor, it’s undeniably the biggest!

“I’ll probably pass it around a bit,” Fritz said when asked if he was going to carry the dino around for all of THON. “It’s not heavy, but it’s bulky.” It’s easy to understand how carrying the blowup on your shoulders for 46 hours straight may get tiring, especially when it stands about four feet tall. But Fritz has made sure to never let the dinosaur touch the ground — it was passed around to multiple kids who proudly lifted the beast onto their shoulders while we talked.

The kids, as you might expect, cannot get enough of the toy. “It definitely makes you a target for water gun fights,” Fritz said with a laugh. Judging by the fading water marks on his grey shirt, you could tell he wasn’t kidding.

However, there is a downside to having such a massive object with you. While you would think that it would be hard to lose such an object, Fritz explained that kids will come up to play with the toy and will try and grab it to run around and play with. “It’s become quite a job, trying not to lose it,” he said.

So as you stand or dance in the BJC make sure you add the red T-Rex to your I Spy list!