by Dennis Dalman
editor@thenewsleaders.com
The Sartell Sabre Dance Team danced away with two third-place awards from the state high-school dance tournament at Target Center last weekend.
On Friday, the team earned third place in the AA jazz competition. The next day, they also earned third in high-kicks. Last year they were state champs in high kick and finished fourth place in jazz.
The third-place wins were the latest triumphs for the team, which has a near-perfect, astonishing season of top wins this season, earning a long series of first-place wins for both jazz and high-kicks, which was a record-breaking achievement.
Totino-Grace of Fridley was the top winner of the tournament, taking first in both jazz and high-kick. That dance team, a perennial top winner, took first four times in the high-kick category, the last time two years ago, before their win Friday. Sartell earned the top award last year.
In high-kick, Totino-Grace earned six points from the judges; second-place winner Faribault had eight points; and Sartell earned 14.5 points. In the preliminary competitions earlier Saturday, Sartell also placed third in high-kick.
Austin was fourth; Benilde-St. Margaret fifth.
Sartell team members Maiah Cameron and Taylor Regnier were named to the all-tournament high-kicks team. Kira Haglin and Hannah Wohletz made the all-tournament jazz team.
In the jazz competition Friday evening, the Sabres earned 14.5 points while first-place Totino-Grace had five points and Benilde-St. Margaret, which was the first-place jazz defending champs from last year, earned second with 10 points.
Faribault was fourth, followed by Rocori in fifth place.
Other teams in the tournament included Albany, Alexandria, Annandale, St. Cloud Apollo, Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa/Paynesville, St. Cloud Cathedral, Detroit Lakes, Melrose and Pequot Lakes.
At the state tournament, 12 teams in each competition classes (schools A, schools AA, schools AAA) competed in the preliminaries. The top six from the preliminaries then went on to competition in the finals.
The Sartell Sabre Dance Team cheers after being presented its third-place high-kicks award at Target Center in the Twin Cities.
