VALLEY CITY, ND  (NewsDakota.com, information submitted by Hi-Lites Dance)  The Hi-Lites dance team turned in their best performance yet at a national event.

The Hi-Lites competed at the UDA National Dance Team Championship on Friday Jan 31st and Saturday February 1st. The competition was held on Disney property at the ESPN Wide World of Sports.

The Hi-Lites competed in the Small Varsity Division ll category  in High Kick and Hip Hop events. The team finished second in High Kick, and were semi-finalists in Hip Hop, placing 13th in our division.  Eleven teams moved onto finals in hip hop, with the Hi-Lites missing  finals by a half a point.

“This has been a huge accomplishment for our team. The highest our team has placed was 7th the other times we have competed here. Being defunded by the school this season came with a lot of obstacles which obviously included more fundraising for us amongst other things,” said the Hi-Lites staff.

The performances followed the January 17th state competition in Minot.  The Hi-Lites were runner up in both the Class A Varsity high kick and hip hop divisions and then placed 4th in our Jazz division. They also received the team Scholar award for having a team average GPA of 3.2 or higher.

Ada Gilbertson, a senior on the team, received the scholarship award for the Class A Varsity division as well as receiving 8th place in her solo.

“This team has been so fun to see grow this season. Our saying this year has been, ‘We are all we got, we are all we need.’  I truly believe this motto describes our team and season perfectly. We are all sad to see our season come to an end, but it has had such an amazing ending,” the Hi-Lites staff added.

The team included five seniors; Ada Gilbertson, Tessa Kinney, Katie Jones, McKenley Fladeland, and Laniya Walker.