Story by Lorenzo Serrato, Sports Editor

The Aquinas Dance team came to play this past weekend, taking home a first place finish at the Saints Showdown on Feb. 5. The competition was hosted by Aquinas and is the only home event for the team this season. Other schools that participated were Adrian, Lawrence Tech, Madonna, Thomas More, St. Francis, and Viterbo.

With an outstanding grand total of 84.1, Aquinas came out on top 3.9 points ahead of Viterbo who placed second with a total score of 80.2 points. Saint Francis finished in third (78.7), Thomas More in fourth (75.6), Marian in fifth (71.9), Madonna in sixth (71.7), Adrian in seventh (64.5), and Lawrence Tech in eigth (58.5).

Aquinas excelled in both the jazz and hip-hop categories, being judged and scored based on execution, technique, and overall performance. They scored a 4 out of 5 in the jazz section, and 3.5 in the hip hop sections respectively. The competition enabled the Saints to display their continued progress this season.

“Coming off low scores the weekend prior, we knew we had to prove ourselves,” said Lauren Shippy, a junior and competitor for AQ Dance. “The energy of being on our home turf with our friends and family’s support was indescribable. Surrounded by love and support, we performed our best yet, and we earned first place scores. We are beyond proud of ourselves and hope to continue this streak”.

While the pandemic has been a huge roadblock for all college sports, the team has used it as motivation to perform under pressure and against high competition. It is a true testament of the team’s resiliency heading into this unprecedented season.

“I’m proud of the work our team put in during practice this week,” said Ashley Rowe, the team’s head coach. “We made some crucial improvements to our routine, and it paid off in our performance today. We look forward to using the judge’s feedback to improve even more over the rest of our regular season.”