Dance and Cheer teams steal the spotlight at Regionals
Elisabeth Cohen, music industry studies sophomore, leads the Loyola dance team during a halftime performance on Feb. 8 2018. The dance team has won an at-large bid to compete in the national tournament. Photo credit: Andres Fuentes
March 2, 2018
The Loyola dance and cheer teams strutted their stuff on the at the National Southeast Regional tournament.
For their first time in the competition, the dance squad placed fourth overall and the cheer team finished in 11th place.
The dance team had an overall score of 73.52 while the cheer team racked up 86.95 in the competition.
Elisabeth Cohen, music industry studies sophomore, said that the competition they faced was tough but she also believes they proved they belonged in the competition.
“We had a really unique choreography so I think we stood out compared to the other teams,” Cohen said.
During the pre-elimination round, however, the dance team fell short of their expectations as they fell out of turn and failed to hit specific moves in their routine.
Things changed in the finals round for the dance team and Victoria Wilson, physics sophomore, credits the team for coming together and regrouping.
“We went into the finals with a more fierce attitude and just gave it our all,” Wilson said.
The winners from each regional tournament and the top eight scores from across all regional tournaments earn a spot to compete at nationals. The dance team barely finished in the eighth spot and earned their first trip to the national tournament.
To prepare for nationals, Wilson said that it’s important for them to push themselves to next level if they want to have a shot at winning.
“We’re trying to up the difficulty of our routine,” Wilson said.
Both dancers said that the team is excited about the upcoming challenge, especially since this is the team’s first trip to nationals.
“We just wanna show that we have a good team and put Loyola on the map,” Cohen said.
