This past weekend I was honored to go to Orlando, Florida and Compete at the UDA Nationals. We competed on Friday in Small Varsity DII Pom and Hip Hop in Prelims and Small Varsity DII Game day semi-finals. High School Nationals are split into 4 subsets A, B, C, and D. The top teams in each subset go straight to finals if the division has three rounds. As the rounds keep going the subsets get smaller until finals. In finals the amount of teams in thatround depends on how many teams start.
On Friday we were blessed to have good placement for the competition and ended the day making Finals for Game day and semi-finals for Pom and Game day. In our subset A we were heading into finals 1st with a score of 87. There was a total of 15 teams that advanced to finals. On Saturday Finals we finished in 4th place.
After game day we headed into Pom ready to fight. We were heading into Semis 3rd in our Subset. After game day awards we ran across ESPN to go compete Pom on Saturday. We ended pom Saturday night not feeling so confident heading into announcing pom finals. Thankfully we were announced as Pom finalist and was heading into finals on Sunday in 7th (This does not include the top 3 teams thatheaded straight to finals). Sunday night we headed into the Field house arena for the first time in our program history. The fieldhouse is very special because you get to dance in front of a castle and you only dance in that arena for finals. We ended Sunday night my final day competing getting 10th. I was so thankful to have danced in front of that castle for the last time.
In Hip Hop we found out we made semis on Friday night. We were 3rd in our subset and was ready to just go perform hip hop on Saturday. We ended Saturday not making finals for hip hop, but was less than a point away from making it. We ended semis being 9th and the only took eight teams. The score difference was 82.6 and 82.4. We were so close and lucky to be that close with such a different style this year.
For me this nationals was very bittersweet and had this season was by far my hardest season with a lot of ups and downs. But behind all of that I am so grateful to be part of this programs history and being able to be in Pom finals and compete against teams that have been going to nationals for decades. I am the last person to be on this team that founded it as a club, I am also the only person that has stayed on this team in my grade and I hope that my dedication to this team will be carried on to the younger grades to see. As only a four year program I can’t wait to see what the future holds. My dream is to come back to coach and get that ring.
