News 17 December 2017

Dance Team has plenty to celebrate

The New Hampton High School Dance team once again brought home some hardware from the Iowa State Dance and Drill Team Association competition, held Nov. 30 and Dec. 1 at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.
Also, some of the team members have gotten the opportunity to take part in some memorable holiday traditions, at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City and the Citrus Bowl in Florida.
For the third straight year, the team brought home a trophy in the hip-hop category at the state dance competition, and the team also earned Division 1 in pom — the first year a New Hampton team has competed in that category.
“That was our goal, to get a division 1,” said New Hampton Dance coach Emma Schwickerath. “The girls got their competition routine in June and cleaned it for six months until they competed.”
The team placed seventh overall, which is outstanding for a first-time entry, according to Schwickerath.
“That is amazing, for the first time competing in the pom category.”
Schwickerath said that the routines in hip-hop have gotten more challenging each year. Two years ago, the New Hampton team placed second, and yet, the team’s score was actually higher this year than it was then.
“Hip-hop is a more difficult route,” she said. “Every year routines have gotten more difficult. This was near a college level hip-hop routine. This team worked so hard, I couldn’t be more proud of how these ladies performed.”
Each routine is arbitrarily judged by four different judges, on a score out of 70, and those four scores are averaged to create each team’s final score. This year, the New Hampton team’s composite score in Class V Hip-Hop was 65.375. First place Sioux Center scored 66.75, Prairie City-Monroe scored 66.5 and Mid-Prairie scored 65.5.

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The New Hampton Dance team consists of 19 girls, including Isabel Pool, Brittney Bluhm, Autumn Goebel, Jenna Murray, Kayla Walter, Caitlin Horner, Kori Jirak, Hailey Mahlstedt, Sidney Wenzlaff, Charly Loss, Ann-Sophie Huebeler, Faith Erdman, Rachel Grober, Chiara del Bianco, Julia Havlik, Maddie Cox,  Maddie Hoeck, Kaycee Howe and Makenzie Cox.
 
For more of this article, see Friday's Tribune.

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