After traveling two hours to get to St. Louis, the RBHS Bruin Girls performed their two routines at the state competition yesterday, Feb. 23. At the end of the day, the girls came home with a third place finish in the Mixed dance and a fourth place finish in Poms. While the girls were initially worried winter weather would impeded their ability to attend, once they left individual neighborhoods, roads were OK, senior Morgan Nuetzmann said. The slick road conditions in certain areas weren’t the only problems the girls had to face, though; the floors at the competition site were also more slippery than desired.
“The floors were really slick so it was a little difficult, but I think we did well,” Nuetzmann said. The hardest part at state was “having to deal with the slick floors, but I think we tried to overcome that obstacle as best we could. All of the teams has to deal with it, so everyone had to just work with it and try their best.”
The dances are judged based on showmanship, costume, precision, technique and synchronization. As the last state performance for seniors, the team wanted to do the best they could, Nueztmann said, especially since it’s the last competition before Nationals in Orlando, Fl.
“It was exciting to be able to perform with my team again, but it was sad knowing this is my last state performance,” Nuetzmann said. “But we still have nationals, so I’m glad I still get to perform with my team on a stage again.”
While the team placed well in state, they are already making plans to improve and make a statement at nationals.
“We started adding more difficulty into the dances today so we simply want to continue cleaning the dances and making them the best they can be,” Nuetzmann said. “We have started changing parts that the judges didn’t like at state so they can be even better for nationals.”
By Daphne Yu