WAUBONSIE VALLEY IHSA DANCE COMPETITION PAGE

UPDATES

FRIDAY 12/13/19:

This giant December tradition has a schedule replete with teams looking to make a statement. Let’s start in 1A where potent St. Francis rematches with Aurora Central Catholic 6 days after Naperville North. It’ll also be the season debut for traditionally good Hinckley-Big Rock and Rochelle. And check out this list of crowd-appeal specialists: IMSA, Somonauk, Fieldcrest, Ridgewood, and Lisle! Five of these teams will meet up again at sectionals, so this comp will set up a roadmap for how these teams approach the rest of December and January.

All eyes will be on the seasonal debut by Montini. They’ve proven they can shine on the 1A state floor, and now they face the daunting world of 2A. One of 2A’s interesting stories is Hampshire. Here’s their opportunity to battle for hardware after dancing well last weekend. Lemont and Batavia have had similar profiles in the past several seasons, and again they share this trait: better, cleaner, and bigger for the ’19-’20 season. Belvidere North looked very good and opened some eyes last Sunday at CL Central. Belvidere’s been quiet since the Libertyville comp; these dancers bring two routines to WV’s floor on Saturday. Glenbard South frequently offers up nice performances, and I’m looking forward to watching the mid-season version of the Raider Dance Team. Biggest story: Lincoln-Way West. They’re likely to bounce back after last Saturday’s debut and make a statement like they usually do on this floor every December.

3A’s got lots of potential drama, also. Teams like Oswego, Stagg, Joliet Central, OP-RF, Joliet West, Oswego East, Plainfield Central, Glenbard East, and Wheaton North get to show off the product of intense practices / cleaning / tweaking. Plainfield South is one to watch, coming off of a lower finish but good points performance at Minooka. Downers Grove North seems reinvigorated and we’ll see what they’ve been up to since their last time out on the comp floor. Schaumburg is coming off of a trophy-winning performance last weekend at LZ. Intriguing Lockport showed tons of promise at Andrew, so it’ll be interesting to see where they are right now. Plainfield North has been a dangerous team for a couple seasons, so this’ll be our chance to see if the program’s taken things to the next level. And Metea Valley performed their lyrical and hip hop in the IDTA rubric last weekend, so here’s their first chance for IHSA feedback about 5 weeks ahead of sectionals.

Can Lake Park follow up last week’s stellar debut with another win against strong teams? Will hosts WV come out swinging after a modest start to the winter? Bartlett’s been great each time on the floor, so will they keep it up or turn it up? Will Neuqua Valley continue their steady development and break out against this stacked field? St Charles East keeps rolling, but how will they do against this many amazing teams? And can the North Star dancers close the gap with the East-siders? York was strong in a similar situation at Minooka, so can they pull off another good weekend in a very similar gym? Sandburg’s been laying low since mid-November…are they poised to unveil their four weeks of hard work? Stevenson’s the big name that’s been kind of hidden in that top tier–will they break out and make a statement against killer competition? Barrington went from very good in November to super good last weekend…does the trend continue? Glenbard West started the winter with a bang and a first-place trophy, and then faced stiffer opponents while still being less than a half point under 90. Are they up for holding on to their new seat among top 3A teams? And Minooka were the queens on their home floor last Saturday. Can they show the rest of 3A that they’re capable of topping the field away from home?

So many questions. No answers yet, but we do know this: many of these 3A teams are set to match up at either the DeKalb or Geneva sectional. You can be sure that coaches and dancers will put in their best work to see where they stand in the bigger picture.

THE LOWDOWN

HIGHLIGHTS

(Check back early during the week of 12/16)

3A SCORES

2A SCORES

1A SCORES

JV2A SCORES

ILLINOIS DANCERS

DANCERS EVERYWHERE

(coming soon)

[instagram-feed]