Wolverines dance to fourth place at state

In just its second year back up and running, the Nodaway Valley High School Dance Team brought hardware home from state competition last week.

The Wolverine dancers went Thursday, Nov. 30 to Wells Fargo Arena, where they performed an approximately two-minute pom routine to a medley of “girl songs.”

Head coach Sami Harris — a former NV dancer herself — said she was very pleased with her dancers bringing home fourth place in their division at the Iowa State Dance Team Championships.

“I’m extremely proud of our team and their fourth place finish in Class V Pom. This was Nodaway Valley’s first time competing in the state competition since 2020, and the first time any of the 12 girls on our team have ever performed at the state competition. I never would have imagined when we started our program in October 2022 that we would be earning a fourth place trophy [this year],” Harris said. “The girls have worked so hard for this through their efforts in practice and to fundraise for new poms and costumes.”

The team’s dance was choreographed by Kaitlyn O’Neil. Brittany Christofferson is a volunteer assistant coach who helped review practice film to help the group fine-tune their craft. Peyton Froehlich, another assistant coach, helped do hair and Brittany Baier helped prepare makeup for the team.

Harris also expressed gratitude to the Nodaway Valley Booster Club for their support, and all of the other local supporters.

The team performed their state routine at a basketball game Monday, Nov. 27 and plans to perform in front of their home crowd again Dec. 19 for a Christmas show, as well as Jan. 5.

Dance team performers at state included Emma Lundy, Annika Nelson, Lindsey Davis, Carli Stuva, Izzy Eisbach, Grace Klobnak, Chloe Rardin, Kylie Nelson, Kiara Stevens, Allie Cornelison, Addison Brewer and Kenna Ford, with alternates Bella Day and Adelaide Livingston, as well as manager Mallory Russell. Also members of the dance team are Genevieve Livingston, Liv Laughery and Haisley Zoubek.

“If you’ve been watching our team from the beginning, you can clearly see how each and every dancer has improved along the way,” Harris said.

In other local results, West Central Valley’s dance team brought home a state championship in the Class VII Pom category and dual runner-up finishes in the Class IV Hip Hop and Class I Contemporary categories. They also picked up two top-7 finishes with soloists Ash Van Ness (third in Class 1V) and Malia Fuller (seventh in Class IV).