2010 UDA College Nationals Results

Finals results for the 2010 UDA Collegiate Nationals...For complete results including galleries and video Click Here

JAZZ

Division IA Jazz Final Results
1. University of Minnesota – Minneapolis
2. University of Tennessee
3. Florida State University
4. University of Cincinnati
5. Arizona State University
6. Louisiana State University
7. Michigan State University
8. University of Michigan – Ann Arbor
9. University of Mississippi
10. The Ohio State University
11. University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill
12. Rutgers University
13. University or Illinois – Champaign
14. University of Louisiana – Lafayette

Division I Jazz Final Results
1. California State University – Fullerton
2. California State University – Long Beach
3. University of Delaware
4. Hofstra University
5. University of South Alabama
6. North Dakota State University
7. Southeastern Louisiana University
8. University of Northern Iowa
9. Idaho State University
10. St Johns University
11. Missouri State University
12. University of Illinois – Chicago
13. University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee

Open Jazz Final Results
1. University of Saint Thomas
2. Orange Coast College
3. Lindenwood University
4. College of Saint Benedict
5. The College of New Jersey
6. Northwest Missouri State University
7. University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire
8. Avila University
9. St Cloud State University & University of Puerto Rico - Bayamon
10. Wagner College
11. West Chester University
12. Grand View University
13. Queens College

HIP HOP

Division IA Hip Hop Final Results
1. Louisiana State University
2. University Of Memphis
3. University of Cincinnati
4. University of Nevada – Las
5. University of Tennessee
6. University of Oklahoma
7. Florida State University
8. Michigan State University
9. University of Wisconsin –
10. University of Illinois – Champaign
11. University of Louisiana - Lafayette
12. University of Kansas
13. Rutgers University
14. University of Michigan – Ann
15. University of Alabama
16. University of Oregon

Division I Hip Hop Final Results
1. University of Delaware
2. University of Illinois – Chicago
3. University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
4. Temple University
5. Missouri State University
6. North Dakota State University
7. Hofstra University
8. Southeastern Louisiana University
9. The George Washington University
10. University of Central Arkansas
11. St Johns University

Open Hip Hop Final Results
1. Lindenwood University
2. University of Saint Thomas
3. Avila University
4. University of Puerto Rice – Bayamon
5. St Cloud State University
6. The College of New Jersey
7. University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire
8. West Chester University
9. Georgia College & State University

POM

Division IA Pom Final Results
1. University of Minnesota – Minneapolis
2. University of Memphis
3. University of Colorado –Boulder
4. University of Oklahoma
5. University of Kentucky
6. University of Iowa
7. The Ohio State University
8. UCF

Division I Pom Final Results
1. University of Northern Iowa
2. University of Central Arkansas
3. University of New Hampshire
4. Loyola University

Open Pom Final Results
1. Orange Coast College
2. Grand View University
3. Millikin University

UDA Collegiate Nationals 2010!

The UDA Collegiate Nationals take place in Orlando this weekend and Dave Sanchez from the Dance Team Competitions Yahoo! Group has once again provided College Dance Team Central with predictions and the most thorough preview of this weekend's competitors around. Can Tennessee take the top spot for a fourth straight year in Division IA dance? Will Long Beach State repeat in Division I? Will Orange Coast College (above) take the Open Dance Division again? We'll find out this weekend!

For full online coverage of this weekend's events including video, please visit Varsity.com

Division 1A Blind Prediction: My totally blind prediction: 1) Minnesota, 2) Tennessee, 3) Wisconsin, 4) Florida State, 5) Cincinnati, 6) Michigan, 7) LSU, 8) Arizona State, 9) Kentucky, 10) Louisiana, 11) Central Florida, 12) Michigan State, 13) Kansas, 14) Ohio State, 15) Iowa, 16) Rutgers, 17) North Carolina.

For full capsules on all the competing Division 1A squads Click Here

Division 1 Blind Prediction: 1) Idaho State, 2) Cal State Fullerton, 3) Long Beach State, 4) North Dakota State, 5) Missouri State, 6) St. John's, 7) Hofstra, 8) Northern Iowa, 9) Delaware, 10) SE Louisiana, 11) UC-Santa Barbara 12) Central Michigan, 13) George Washington, 14) South Alabama, 15) Illinois-Chicago, 16) Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 17) Northern Arizona, 18) Murray State.

For full capsules on all the competing Division 1 squads Click Here

Open Division Blind Prediction: 1) Orange Coast College, 2) Lindenwood, 3) St. Thomas, 4) Avila, 5) Harvard, 6) NW Missouri State, 7), (Wisconsin Eau Claire), 8) (St. Cloud State) 9) College of New Jersey, 10) Wagner, 11) St. Benedict, 12) West Chester, 13) Puerto Rico-Bayamon, 14) Grand View, 15) Concordia, 16) California Lutheran.

For full capsules on all the competing Open Division squads Click Here

Division 1A Hip Hop Blind Prediction: 1) Memphis, 2) Cincinnati, 3) Tennessee, 4) Wisconsin, 5) LSU, 6) Oklahoma, 7) Florida State, 8) Louisiana, 9) Kansas, 10) Arizona State, 11) Michigan, 12) UNLV, 13) Mississippi, 14) Washington State, 15) Michigan State, 16) Alabama.

For full capsules on all the competing Division 1A squads Click Here

Division 1 Hip Hop Blind Prediction: 1) Hofstra, 2) Illinois-Chicago, 3) Delaware, 4) (Long Beach State), 5) Idaho State, 6) St. Joseph, 7) George Washington, 8) North Dakota State, 9) Missouri State, 10) SE Louisiana, 11) South Alabama, 12) Temple, 13) UC-Santa Barbara, 14) St. John's, 15) Central Arkansas, 16) Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

For full capsules on all the competing Division 1 squads Click Here

Open Division Hip Hop Blind Prediction: 1) Lindenwood, 2) St. Thomas, 3) Avila, 4) (St. Cloud State,) 5) (Wisconsin Eau Claire) 6) College of New Jersey, 7) Puerto Rico-Bayamon, 8) Parkland, 9) West Chester, 10) Nassau Community College, 11) Westfield, 12) Scranton, 13) LIU-CW Post, 14) Nassau Community College, 15) Northern Kentucky.

For full capsules on all the competing Open Division squads Click Here

Nothing But the Best; Tennessee Dance Team Feature

By Drew Rutherford, UT Media Relations
UTsports.com

Two minutes. That is all the time given to the 18 women on the Tennessee dance team to perform a routine that has taken them weeks to master. But that is all the time they need.

These Vols have owned the jazz category of the College Dance Team National Championships, winning a remarkable three consecutive titles.

"The eight seniors on our team haven't known anything other than championships since they have been at Tennessee," UT Spirit Coordinator Joy Postell-Gee said. "They are going for their fourth title in four years this year."

Being the best dance team in America draws a lot of attention and offers many unique opportunities. The UT dancers performed alongside Hank Williams, Jr., in the Monday Night Football intro on ESPN.

They also showed their skills in the Eric Berry for Heisman music video starring Berry as well as Tennessee basketball player and hip-hop artist Renaldo Woolridge.

While the dancers always look sharp--whether on the big screen or entertaining Vols fans at a UT sporting event--there is a lot of work put in leading up to those performances.

"We may practice one eight-count portion of our routine for two hours," head dance coach Kelley Eidenmuller said. "Over Christmas break when all the other students go home, we stay here and practice eight or nine hours a day to prepare for nationals."

Eidenmuller joined the UT dance team as a team member in 2000 and served as the captain her senior year. After earning her diploma from Tennessee in 2005, she stayed on The Hill to serve as the head coach. In her first three seasons, Eidenmuller has had the Midas touch. Her first three campaigns have ended with her Tennessee dance team standing above the rest as the national champion.

"She is three for three--Pat Summitt better watch out!" Postell-Gee said.

For the women who have put in the hours in the dance studio, the experience leaves a lasting memory of their time on Rocky Top.

"Being a part of this team and a part of UT Athletics has been like nothing I have ever experienced before," senior Emmy Bibliowicz of Winter Park, Fla., said. "Even students that sit in the front row of the student section don't get the view that we get on the sidelines. There is nothing like it."

Like many children in Big Orange country, Knoxville, Tenn., native Alyssa Surrett spent her childhood in the bleachers of Neyland Stadium, Thompson-Boling Arena and other great UT athletics venues. For her, being part of the dance team has been a dream come true.

"I grew up here and have been coming to games all my life," Surrett said. "When I was a little girl I used to watch the dance team and think that someday I would be out there, too."

No matter the circumstances, the three-time reigning national champs are guaranteed to be together. Even after spending countless hours together in the dance studio, the women of the UT dance team never tire of each other.

"The girls on the team have been my best friends throughout my college career," senior Joanna Salmon, Peoria, Ill., said. "You never see just one of us walking around campus; there are always four or five of us. We really are a very close group."

The Tennessee dance team practiced more than 150 hours in preparation for the 2010 College Cheerleading and Dance Team National Championships. On Jan. 17, they will represent the Big Orange Nation at the competition and try to fend off rival Minnesota to win their fourth-consecutive crown.

Warner University Adding Dance and Spirit Squad for 2010-11

LAKE WALES, Fla. – Warner University’s growing athletics program will add a dance and spirit squad for the 2010-11 season.

The addition will create new opportunities for dancers seeking a quality education to continue to perform at the collegiate level. Earlier this school year, the NAIA took steps toward being the first collegiate governing body to host Cheer and Dance as a National Championship sport when they named it one of their emerging sports.

The fan-friendly program should add to the excitement that the other Warner athletic programs already bring to the Warner campus and create more opportunities for involvement in the Lake Wales and surrounding area communities.

If interested, please contact Courtney Hall, the current cheerleading coach at courtney.hall@warner.edu

Michigan Dance Team Preparing For Run At National Title

By Michael Rothstein
AnnArbor.com

In a brick-lined room with blue mats on the side, the 21 women were mostly silent. Instructions and criticism from the coach cut through the still air inside the dance studio at Michigan’s Central Campus Recreation Building.

Two days remained until their departure for the only competition the University of Michigan dance team would compete in all year, nationals, an annual chance to dispel the pom-pom label and show a wider audience their skills.

They finished practice late on Tuesday night with one hip-hop routine, two minutes of sweat and flying through the air like Cirque de Soleil minus the trapeze.

Behind the easy cheers and routines performed at games, nationals are what it's all about for members of the Michigan dance team.

They are not on scholarship and usually shell out between $4,000 and 5,000 a year to participate. Some take second jobs for this. Others have sacrificed spring break because they could pay for one trip, and dance team took precedence.

All for this week.

The national championships at Disney World, where Michigan will head Thursday for this weekend’s competition, are the culmination of a year’s worth of work.

The routines are as intricate as a football play, the synchronization as critical as a race car driver hitting all of his marks along a track, the rhythm as important as tempo to a golfer striking a perfect iron.

Over and over, they work on tricks. This particular day they have been struggling with handstands and a difficult maneuver requiring two dancers to interlock arms, one to jump on another’s back and then fly into the air still attached to their partner. They jump 3-to-5 feet. All that’s missing is a skateboard or snowboard to qualify it as an extreme sport maneuver.

“That’s one thing,” 21-year-old captain Kimberly Lehnert said. “I think we’ve gotten so used to trying new tricks and trying new things that we’re not afraid to just throw ourselves. And we’ve had people get hurt.”

In that moment, as your bones and ligaments scream just watching, it’s an easy realization.

These women are athletes. No question about that.

“Say that louder,” Lehnert said.

Then she laughs.

Throwing T-Shirts into the crowd and waving the pom-poms and yelling ‘Let’s Go Blue’ is a small part of what they really do. More visible, for sure, but there’s a reason the 21 team members - only 14 compete in nationals - show up two weeks before school starts for intense two-a-day practices, complete with three hours of conditioning and technique to go with learning the actual routines from the Los Angeles-based choreographer Dee DeFillipio.

It’s because this stuff is hard. Painful. And the long hours are the only way they can improve on last year’s sixth-place finish in jazz and 11th in hip-hop.

“I’ll dance with a broken wrist,” one dancer said Tuesday night as she walked and then sat along the mirror on the far side of the studio. “It’s no big deal.”

With no trainer available and the routine and intensity growing as each week progresses toward this one, Michigan’s coach, Valerie Stead Potsos, says she averages a couple of hospital visits a year with her athletes.

Slipped discs, injured backs and in the case of the one dancer, a potential
broken wrist.

Nothing that a normal team on scholarship at school doesn’t go through.

“A lot of us have been doing this since high school, middle school,” said the team’s other 21-year-old captain, Olivia Dunn. “Back then, nobody was like ‘Oh, those are the national dance championships.’ No one cared what Kimmy did outside of school, that she won a solo competition for dance that weekend. I’m sure she didn’t walk around screaming it.

“Now that you’re at a bigger university, you wish, at times, it was more known because you hear all these other sports teams doing so well.”

Instead they settle for this: When they show up at nationals, many opposing teams marvel at how Michigan’s athletes balance intense course loads with an intense practice regimen. Dunn is going into engineering when she graduates. Lehnert is visiting a New York City law school in two weeks.

That’s for a few weeks and months from now. Right now, their concentration is placed in the wood-floored room in the CCRB with the glass wall overlooking the entrance to the facility, the one where crowds have sometimes gathered unsure what they were watching.

Inevitably, someone recognizes them as “those are the girls on the court. What are they doing,” Lehnert said.

The answer is simple. Trying to win a national championship.

TCU Dance Team Shines At Fiesta Bowl

The TCU Dance Team definitely made an impression in front of a national television audience at the Fiesta Bowl. Below is an article on the squad from the Thaindian News and the team was featured in a photo gallery on SI.com as well.

For the full gallery, including the photo here, visit SI.com

The TCU Dance Team Added More Color To The Fiesta Bowl
By Meena Kar
Thaindian News

The crowd at the University of Phoenix Stadium was in high spirits cheering for their respective teams. The battle between the TCU and Boise State fans could be felt as there were loud cheers echoing among the gaggle of people. The TCU dance team were boisterous and backing their team. The sprightly, animated group of girls were all there to provide the needed support and encouragement to their team. The frenzied crowd were inspired by the TCU girls to add more excitement to the game.

The stadium was looking flamboyant with the purple color predominant on one side. The other side of the noisy stadium looked equally colorful in a patch of blue and orange. The young beautiful ladies of the TCU dance team added an extra aura to the Fiesta Bowl and turned out to be one of the much talked about aspect of the night’s game.

The mother of one of the three TCU girls went to the extent of buying tickets on both sides of the stadium to get a glimpse of her daughter over a wide range. She had to spend a good amount for buying the tickets though. The encouraging mother was sitting amidst the Boise fans at one point of time too, but to be able watch her daughter prancing and backing the TCU team from all possible angles.

With the presence of the TCU team, the excitement and entertainment quotient was present in equal dosage in the Fiesta Bowl. Even though TCU didn’t end the night on a winning note, the TCU dance team rather managed to carve a niche for themselves among the crowd present at the venue.

Akron Dancer is Miss Ohio Teen USA

Green resident new Miss Ohio Teen USA
By Kathleen Folkerth
Akron.com

GREEN — Bridget Linton is no stranger to competition.

The Green resident, who has competed internationally as an Irish dancer and now is on The University of Akron (UA) Dance Team, was crowned Miss Ohio Teen USA in October and will represent the state in national competition next summer.

Linton said she competed against more than 60 Ohio girls in the state pageant, which took place in Portsmouth.

“It didn’t really hit me until the next day that I won,” she said.

All the contestants competed in swimsuit and evening gown rounds Oct. 9. The following day, the contestants went through a round of interviews with judges, and then the field was narrowed to 15.

During the final day of competition Oct. 10, the semi-finalists competed again in swimsuit and evening gown competition before five finalists were announced. The five were asked a random question, with Linton’s being about what life lessons are learned through athletics or competition.

Linton said she had no idea the question would be about something she is so familiar with. She has been an Irish dancer since the age of 4 and has competed in the United States as well as in Ireland and Scotland, she said.

Her background as a competitive dancer helped contribute to her success at the pageant, she said.

“It taught me what hard work means,” she said. “You really have to work to be successful, so I learned I have that competition feeling inside me. It also taught me the poise and elegance you are supposed to have.”

Linton is the daughter of Kathie and Darrell Linton, a Green Middle School science teacher and track coach, and a 2009 graduate of Green High School. She is a freshman at UA and is majoring in broadcast journalism.

It wasn’t until this past year that Linton explored the world of pageants. She participated in the Queen Pageant at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton last spring and loved the experience.

“I was one of the princesses, and I got to escort (Hall of Fame inductee) Bruce Smith into the ceremony,” she said.

She looked into other pageants and found out about the Miss Ohio Teen USA program, which is a stepping stone to the Miss Teen USA pageant.

“I thought, I could do this,” she said. “It seemed like a great experience.”

She submitted an application and was named Miss Uniontown for the competition. To prepare, she worked out to stay in shape and also practiced possible interview questions with her mother, she said.

While she’s pleased with the outcome, it wasn’t all about winning, Linton stressed.

“Mainly I was just going in to have fun,” she said. “But it turned out in my favor.”

After the first of the year, Linton will begin to prepare in earnest for the national competition, which will take place at the Atlantis resort in the Bahamas in late July or early August. The pageant has been televised in recent years, but Linton said the decision as to whether this year’s event will be telecast has not been decided, which is why the date is not definite yet.

The pageant provides Linton with training and transportation. She does have some required appearances around the state in 2010, and she said she’s looking forward to that.

“One thing I want to do is travel to different schools to promote pageants and tell younger kids to have self-confidence and stay true to themselves,” she said.

Linton said she is taking the year off from Irish dance competition because of the pageant, but she is working as an Irish dance instructor for the O’Hare School of Irish Dance.

“It was hard balancing both of them,” Linton said. “I decided I will take one thing at a time.”

With the UA Dance Team, Linton performs at every UA men’s and women’s basketball game. The Dance Team also is preparing for national competition this spring.

She said the pageant officials will work with her and her school schedule.

“I’m keeping busy,” she said.