The Dance Team clinched second place wins in both the Illinois Drill Team Association (IDTA) and the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) divisions at home on Saturday, Jan. 7.

After the two second-place finishes, the varsity team now qualifies for IDTA state, which was their main goal entering the competition, according to senior Elaine Myers.

“Our coaches were super proud of our performance and said we did amazing,” Myers said.

This year, the team added a boys dance to the end of the competition for fun and it was “a big hit,” according to senior dancer Megan Winston.

With three years of varsity dance experience, Winston knew what they were up against going into the competition. According to her, their competition improves every year just as much as EHS does. IHSA hosted 13 teams competing on Saturday and IDTA hosted just six.

But even though the competition is tough, freshman Ella Cooper thinks the team was ready for their big day, which included competing against Highland, the Tigers’ biggest competition and the first-place winners of both divisions.

“We did well at our first competition and I personally thought we were ready,” Cooper said.

From here, they hope to qualify for IHSA state and follow last year’s IHSA sectional win. Winston believes their second-place finish on Saturday proved what the team is capable of and what still needs to be done.

“It showed us that we’re going to have to put in a lot of hard work if we want to succeed at sectionals and at state against the Chicago teams,” Winston said. “(The competition) was a great start, but it shows us we still have improvements to make.”

With the rest of the season in mind and a top-place finish, the varsity team now has the motivation to move forward.

“We just wanted to go out there and have an amazing performance and represent our school on our home turf,” Myers said. “We definitely did that.”