Wheaton North 3A Statistics
I’m still getting used to the idea of watching a dance competition the weekend after Halloween. On the plus side, Wheaton North is a short drive from home, they’ve upgraded their bleachers, and the team has a long history of hosting competitions (this was the 13th consecutive year, I think). Then there’s the excitement of seeing which teams are bold enough to unveil their work so early, and which teams want to set the bar high for everyone else. Last year’s 3A winner at Wheaton North, Lake Park, established themselves as the frontrunners all the way through state. Win early and you’ve set the tone for your own team and the entire 3A field.
Twelve 3A teams brought eighteen dances and earned 1440.97 points, or an average score of 80.05. Scores were evenly distributed since the median score (80.72) is pretty close to the average.
Jazz routines (including both traditional and contemporary shades) were the preferred choice, making up half of the eighteen dances. They averaged an 80.98 and earned about half of the total points awarded (50.58%)–all indicators that scores were pretty evenly spread out. The highest-placing jazz routine came in 2nd (90.37).
Four 3A lyrical dances earned a similar average to jazz (80.78). 1st place honors went to a lyrical routine (90.77). When you combine lyrical and jazz (thirteen dances), these account for 72% of the 3A field and 73% of the points earned. These routines were spread out among the eighteen placements and ranged from first to last. Note that the jazz average and the lyrical average beat the overall 3A average.
The two hip hop routines, though, placed in the bottom half of the field: one at 12th and the other at 17th. Their average was 72.45.
Three pom routines landed roughly in the middle of the field (7th, 8th, and 10th) with an average score of 81.39, higher than jazz, lyrical, or hip hop. Pom also earned the highest “low” score of any category (80.70), which itself is very close to the overall 3A average. This suggests that while pom wasn’t close to the top 3, this dance style was solid enough to stay at or above the 3A average. Also interesting is the spread between the high and low of the three pom routines, just 1.57 points. It should be interesting to see if future pom scores cluster around the center of the range of scores in upcoming competitions.
[infogram id=”wheaton_north_numbers” prefix=”X2q” format=”interactive”]
For teams with two dances, it felt like their second time out was stronger, and the numbers back that up. Routine 1 averaged a 78.79 while Routine 2’s average inched up to 81.71. The twelve dances by double-routine teams earned an average of 80.25 versus 79.66 for single-routine teams. The highest single-routine team placed 3rd, while the same double-routine team swept the top two spots.
For teams with two dances, the popular choice was to make sure at least one of them was lyrical or jazz–this was the case for five of the six teams in this group. The sixth team (pom and hip hop) stuck to their specialty and earned an average that beat the overall 3A mean score (80.72). This suggests that even if you choose to not bring lyrical or jazz as part of your two-dance repertoire, you’d still come out no worse than in the middle (at least on this day). In fact for this competition the bigger factor in a higher score was simply having two routines. Keep in mind that some of these single-dance teams will likely bring a second routine in future competitions, but we’ll keep monitoring this trend to see if it holds up.
The season’s first scores are in and the first trophies are hoisted. This time it’s South Elgin who’s the clear frontrunner–will this set the tone for the rest of the season? Things will get more complicated after the weekend of November 21 and 22, but South Elgin definitely made a bold statement early.