The Lyons Township High School varsity competitive dance/poms team used more than luck to make the most of its seventh straight berth to the IHSA competitive dance state championships Jan. 26-27 in Bloomington.
The Lions reached the finals of the 30-team Class 3A division and finished sixth (90.98 points) after reaching the 12-team finals with the sixth-best qualifying score (90.10).
Team members are seniors Keira Boyd, Mya Campbell, Isabella DiGuilio, Micaella Gennett, Lola Hennessy, Kayla Lovelace, Hallie Olenec and Olivia Rosenzweig, juniors Anastasia Brown, Annie Ketchum, Sydney Michalak, Brooke Shurhay and Brooke Walsh, sophomores Peyton Carmody, Nora Foley, Hayden Frazier, Brooke Manley, Liza Shorrock and Karina Singh and freshman Campbell McCarthy. Campbell, Hennessy, Lovelace, Olenec and Walsh are team captains.
The Lions recently have finished 22nd at state last season (83.47), 23rd (81.94) in 2022 and 24th in 2021 (80.39) in 2021, which was held virtually because of COVID-19 restrictions. They were second at the Lake Park Sectional (93.80) to advance to state with a top-six finish.
“(Our team) has had the goal of making it to day two of IHSA state for the past couple of years and we are thrilled to have accomplished that,” seventh-year LTHS coach Brittany Smith responded. “And not only making it to day two but finishing sixth among some amazing routines is so rewarding.
“The team has worked hard all year to make this happen. From drilling technique, cleaning the routine and making changes it has made great strides since the start of our competition season in November. We are so grateful to our choreographer Marissa Powers and our team members for pushing each other all season.”
The Lions still have 14 members from last year’s lineup (Boyd, Campbell, DiGuilio, Gennett, Hennessy, Lovelace, Olenec, Rosenzweig, Ketchum, Michalak, Walsh, Foley, Frazier and Shorrock) that won Lyrical/Contemporary and Open Pom state titles in the AAA Division at the Illinois Drill Team Association finals. The varsity and junior varsity teams return to this year’s IDTA finals Saturday in Springfield.
Nazareth Academy pom and dance
The Roadrunners climaxed their history-making IHSA season by taking a program-best ninth (84.68) in the Class 1A competitive dance state finals.
Team members are seniors Ava Hartschuh, Emma Heery and Faith Mouw, juniors Emma Chiarito, Cameron Dunleavy, Lia Jozwiak, Bella Madonia, Maria Nelson, Georgia Panek and Rosaria Ricchio, sophomores Lilly Baldwin, Gabriella Imbarrato, Josephine Meehan and Zoe Weiss. Head coach Kristen Yarka and assistant coach Sarah Radford Pastor both are former Nazareth pom and dance team performers.
In their third straight state trip and fifth in program history, the Roadrunners advanced to the second-day finals for the first time with the sixth-highest preliminary total (85.22). Their championship at the Joliet West Sectional (86.73) was the first sectional title in program history.
The Roadrunners finished 21st at state last season (74.30) and 24th (73.18) in 2022.