Dance team: Cathedral breezes to Miss. 8 title; Rogers 2nd, Zimmerman 4th

By Bruce Strand on January 22, 2012 at 4:52 am

Rogers Dance Team performs in jazz. (Photo by Bruce Strand)

by Bruce Strand, Sports editor

Conference newcomer St. Cloud Cathedral wrapped up the Mississippi 8 championship in dance team Saturday, placing first in both high-kick and jazz at the final conference meet, in Rogers.

Cathedral, captained by Alyon Prom, Carly Novak, Tasha Johnson, and Jenn Hinnenkamp, also won the conference jazz and high-kick meets previously.

Thunder Dance Team performs in high-kick. (Photo by Bruce Strand)

Rogers placed second, Monticello third, Zimmerman fourth, Becker fifth and Big Lake sixth in both dances, and that was the final order of finish behind Cathedral for the season.

Rogers, captained by Nandu Ganesh, Arista Metz and Haley Von Bank, finished a strong second after winning the last four conference titles.

St. Cloud Cathedral was elegant in victory, here in jazz. (Photo by Bruce Strand)

Cathedral, which has won state Class AA championships in both high kick and jazz, was added to the conference this year. Meanwhile Zimmerman stayed in the conference for dance after moving to another conference for other sports. Otherwise the Mississippi would have been down to four dance teams.

Zimmerman, which has been runner-up behind Rogers in previous years, had placed third in both the jazz and kick meets, but the Monticello Stars moved ahead of them for the first time in both on Saturday. Thunder captains are Allie Kratzke and Melissa Burk.