The St. Thomas dance team clinched its second consecutive hip-hop national title and placed second in jazz at the Universal Dance Association’s National Championship last weekend.

St. Thomas competes in the open division consisting of Division-II and -III schools and has a decorated history at the UDA event held at the ESPN Worldwide of Sports complex in Orlando, Florida. The Tommies previously won national championships in jazz in 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013 and 2014, and in hip-hop in 2011 and 2014.

“The pressure is definitely there. It is there whether or not you want to think about it, but we really didn’t talk about going back and defending these two titles,” coach Alysia Ulfers said. “Any one of us would be lying if we said it wasn’t in the back of our minds, but I believe if you focus on that you aren’t going to get anywhere.”

The dance team experienced adversity shortly before the competition, losing two dancers to broken necks in practice as a result of one of the tricks in the hip-hop routine.

“We have this thing – we just call it ‘nationals drama’ – where every year something bad happens, or there’s something we need to change right away,” senior captain Annie Lindberg said. “We had to put in alternates, change formations in both dances, but at the same time, this drama made our team stronger.”

Coach Ulfers was thrilled with her team’s performance, calling this the best nationals St. Thomas has had in terms of preparation for the UDA event.

“I don’t think we’ve ever gone to nationals so prepared. I mean, we are prepared and ready every year,” Ulfers said. “But there was something about this year that made it so different, and going into it with a different mindset – a different level of confidence – just set the weekend up for success no matter what happened.”

Ulfers credited much of the team’s success to the team captains: Lindberg, senior Julia Randall, junior Morgan McGowan and junior Kelly Olson. Ulfers said the dancers stepped up and held the team together.

“Our leadership was instrumental in how our season went. Every team that’s competitive, any group, club, has its ups and downs, and they got us through it,” Ulfers said. “So much of that success I give to the captains.”

Though the Tommies were disappointed with a second-place jazz finish, Lindberg said they completed their routine perfectly and were thrilled with their performance. In the hip-hop category though, Lindberg said the team was overwhelmed with the attention it received.

“I think this is the best hip-hop dance we’ve ever had, and it’s cool to hear that dancers around the world, and even just the nation, have really responded to our hip-hop dance this year,” Lindberg said. “Random girls were coming up to us saying they cried watching our hip-hop dance. They wanted pictures with us. People were saying (our dance) was the favorite dance out of the whole competition.”

Jordan Kruger can be reached at krug6172@stthomas.edu.