On January 21st, the dance team competed and hosted the IHSA Sectional Competition.

This is a very important competition for the dance team because it determines if the dance team advances to the IHSA State Competition held in Bloomington, Illinois.

“Our team has been working hard since the summer to prepare for this competition,” said senior Emily Brown.

The day started off with the dance team arriving at the high school at around 8 o’clock. The girls got ready by putting their makeup on and doing their hair.

“Getting ready is one of my favorite parts about competitions. We always play music and have a fun time,” Brown said.

When the dance team was all ready, they went to the warm up gym to practice a little before their performance.

“In the warm up gym, we stretch and practice anything we need to before we perform it in front of a bunch of people and judges,” said senior Stephanie Krnich.

After the warm up gym, the girls performed their routine in the field house in front of the judges and audience.

“I always get super nervous before we perform, but after it was all done, we felt super good about our performance,” said senior captain Lauren Engert.

After all teams perform, they all gather into the field house one more time for awards. This is where the teams find out who makes it to State.

“Awards is always super nerve racking because you never know what place you are going to take,” Krnich said.

Although the dance team did not advance to the State competition, they received the best score and placement for this season.

“It stinks that we didn’t make it to State, but we were still proud of how well we performed,” Engert said.