Dance teams place high at State

After the 20-hour State Dance and Drill Team Association’s (ISDTA) team championship competition in Des Moines on Friday, Dec. 1, three Cedar Falls team returned with top finishes. The competition is one of the largest high school and college contests in the nation, and the Cedar Falls dance team placed fourth out of 11 teams for class eight hip-hop, and third out of 12 teams for class 13 pom, one of the most competitive divisions at the competition.

Senior and co-captain of the varsity team Mackenzie Beving said that she is proud of their performance. “I will never forget how amazing State was this year. Our goal as a team was to do well at State and give it our all. I think the team achieved our goal as well, and I think It’ll give the team next year the confidence to continue to work hard,” Beving said.

Along with top performances from the women’s teams, the all-male team won first place in its division for the eighth year in a row. With a “crash dummies” theme, the team took the basketball court in the center of Wells Fargo arena, filling the arena with laugher as soon as the music started.

Andrew Mcvicker, senior co-leader of the all male dance team, said the team’s goals were,

“Primarily, we wanted to get first place. We made sure to have our full concentration during the performance so that we could do our best.”

All CFHS teams had high performance scores, raising the stakes for next years. Beving said,

“I think doing well this year is definitely going to raise the expectations for the team next year, but I know they’re going to do great.”

Mcvicker also has high hopes for the future. “Next year CF all male will aim for the nine-peat,” Mcvicker said. “I don’t think that this year’s captains set the best example of leadership. A lot of traditions fell though. Even though we didn’t provide the best example for them to follow, I hope next year’s captains can be even greater.”