Pom and Dance Team brings home more national gold

The Sun Prairie High School Varsity Pom & Dance Team received a police escort down Main Street earlier this week -- a welcome worthy of return national champions. And that's exactly what they are.

On the bus ride back from the American National Dance Championship competition in Indianapolis, the girls carried two trophies, a plaque, a Champs banner and individual  National Champions jackets and medals.

Here's how a team representative described the excitement:

The team had received first place for their funk routine at both the regional and state competitions earlier this year, and were ready to compete the state winning routine at nationals. However, they had not yet performed their pom routine in any competition before attempting it at nationals.

Both dances were performed and judged on Saturday and Sunday. Their performance on Saturday left them in 2nd place for Pom and in 3rd place for Funk.
 
Saturday's scores were only 1/3 of the total for the weekend, and they still had Sunday to perform for the remaining 2/3 total score.

Just before the team dinner on Saturday night, they were made aware of their placement from Saturday's performance, and remained very optimistic and excited -- but also knew they had their work cut out for them if they were going to bring home a second-consecutive National Championship trophy.

Sunday's Funk and Pom routines looked flawless to the huge parent support group, which joined the team in Indianapolis. But they also knew that the competition was definitely the toughest that the team had been against all season.

As the awards ceremony started on Sunday, everyone was anxious and the team sat together on the floor holding hands and waiting for the announcements for their division.

Poms was the first category in their division to be announced (choreographed by Sam Moodie and Kirstin Huie), and the team received a well-deserved 3rd place national trophy, which was amazing, since it was also the first time that the team had performed their pom routine in a competition.

Funk was the final category in their division to be announced (choreographed by Molly Hitt), and they started with the 4th place winner. Everyone was holding their breath as each result was read.

Third place, and the team still sat huddled together, heads down, fingers locked together. It was announced that the judges had to replay and double- and triple-check score sheets before they could announce that there was a tie for 2nd place -- however, Sun Prairie varsity was not included in the tie.

The thought on everyone's mind at this point was "could it really be?"

Parents started to shift in their seats and the girls were shifting on the floor when it finally came over the loud speaker that Sun Prairie Varsity Dance Team is #1 in funk as well as the Grand Champion.

For this very excited 18-member varsity team, it was also the final dance for its 10 seniors, who will be graduating this June: Kame Blair, Jenny Follett, Rachel Gardner, Anica Henkel, Kirstin Huie, Emily Jurovic, Kristin Mosley, Melanie Torres and Varsity Dance Captains Erin Manske and Lexi Whalen.

The Team and the Booster Club would like to thank these businesses, which have helped support them this season: Outback Steakhouse (East Towne), Walmart, Dairy Queen, Cardinal Heating, Beef O' Brady's, Bank of Sun Prairie, Throttlethreads.com & BW Design, C & S Music, Century 21, Shakelford Heating, The Templeton's, Dr. Carpenter, Jennings & Woldt, Coke, Wright Vision, Sentry Foods, YMCA, Prairie Land Towing, Quality Power Solutions, PROFORMA TECHNIGRAPHICS, Zimbrick and Sun Prairie Today.

And no team would be complete without its coaches, choreographers and the rest of the squad.

Coaches Lindsey DuBenske and Anna Jurovic and choreographers Molly Hitt, Sam Moodie and Kirstin Huie were extraordinary leaders and were successful this year in recognizing and bringing out the talents that the SPHS Varsity dancers possess.

And dancers Brooke Elding, Libby Haley, Clare Hanrahan, Alison Litterer, Christie Suchomel, Allyvia Vang, Andrea White and Julianne Williams showed that they could keep up with this National winning team of seniors.