The week of Nationals brings so much excitement and anticipation for our National Team that you can literally feel the excitement in the air! We arrived in South Bend on Monday and headed to a local dance studio that is so generous to let us practice and use their studio space for our kick off party. After an easy practice, we headed into our kick off party that is hosted by the moms from one of our teams. They planned crafts, provided the sweetest gifts and even had sweet treats for the kids. We ended the team party with our annual sister gift exchange - this is where the kids sit by their team sister and exchange good luck gifts. It's such a positive way to start the week. After the party, we headed back to our hotel to practice, relax and get ready for competition day!
Day 1 of Nationals started with individual routines and very quickly our twirlers started earning Top Tens. We are proud of the 7th place earned by Tori in X-Strut, 10th by Imka in X-Strut, 7th by Jasmine in X-Strut, 7th by Addison in X-Strut, Aria 12th in X-Strut. We ended the day with team performances in the Twirl Team, Danceline & Pom events.
We were pretty pumped when our Senior Twirl Team won their division! Our Danceline won 2nd and Pom won 6th in their events.
After a long day, we headed back to rest for an even more exciting Day 2 that included competing our dance twirl routines and our 6 minute production number! We earned a 2nd place in our production number along with 3rd for "Someday" and 3rd for "Thank God, I Do" along with 5th for Somebody To Love! As if competing all of those team routines didn't keep us busy, we also had twirlers competing in individual events throughout the day! Kate earned an 8th in Advanced 3 Baton, Stella won 7th in 2-Baton, Addison won 8th in 2-Baton, Stella & Addison earned 10th in Duet, Aria & Imka earned 4th in Duet. Whew! It was a great day with so much success. We love it when their hard work pays off!
We started Day 3 with just one team routine to perform and we are happy to have earned a Top Ten in that event and then celebrated with our annual photo session at the beautiful Joyce Center at Notre Dame University. After photos, we celebrated all of the Top Ten placements that our students earned in their solo events. Lucy earned 3rd in her solo, Tori won 3rd in her solo, Camille won 9th in her solo, Imka won 3rd in her solo, Natalie won 10th in her solo. WOW! Each of these events usually have over 20 competitors from all over the USA and we are always so grateful when we can earn a top spot.
Just as important as the medals and the accolades are the memories that are made, the fun that is had hanging out with your twirling friends, and the bonds of sisterhood that run so deep amongst this group that practices so very hard for an entire year for just 3 minutes of glory.
If you know one of our National Team members celebrate their accomplishments! They do amazing things that make our coaching staff so proud! We know that their time with us is short but the lessons that they learn and the memories that they make will last a lifetime!
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