PROVO – Two Utah College dance teams found themselves in familiar territory over the weekend in Daytona Beach, Florida at the end of the National Cheerleaders Association (NCA) and National Dance Alliance (NDA) Collegiate Cheer and Dance Championships.
For the 20th time in the history of the program, BYU’s Cougarettes dance troupe won a national championship and took the Division IA national hip hop title on Saturday. That’s 20 national titles in the 40th year of the NCA and NDA national events held at Daytona Beach for 25 consecutive seasons.
The Cougarettes returned to the top of the hip-hop mountain under co-head coaches Stacy Bills and Morgan St. Pierre, who took over the program after legendary director and choreographer Jodi Maxfield resigned last April. Maxfield won 19 national championships in 30 years with the program.
Both Bills, a native of Utah County, and St. Pierre, who is from Cottonwood Heights, are alumni of the program that occurred under Maxfield.
You can check out the title-winning hip-hop routine on Instagram below.
From a school once known for jazz and contemporary dance, the Cougarettes have built a hip-hop dynasty since winning their first title in 2011 – and one that is also internationally recognized.
Weber State also climbed to the top of its division in the competition, which was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic last year and scored 94.115 in the Division I hip-hop finals to win the championship.
The Wildcats’ Spirit Squad won a fourth consecutive national title in the Advanced Large Coed Division with a total score of 98,507 – the best score in school history and the highest score of any school in any division of the competition, resulting in Grand National title awards.
The Wildcats, led by Summer Willis, the director of the Spirit Squad, and Erica Williams, the dance coach, also won the national hip-hop title in their division. Elsa Hassett and Kollin Cockrell won a national individual title in the partner stunt, which marks Cockrell’s second individual title in the partner stunt.
2021 NCA Grand National Champions!
Congratulations to the Weber State Spirit Squad on winning another national title! The wildcats had the highest score of any school in a division in the entire championship! # PurpleReign # WeAreWeberpic.twitter.com/3v36X0vAKF
– Weber State Athletics (@weberstate) April 10, 2021
Utah Valley won the Advanced All-Girl Division I Jubilee Championship, beating Sam Houston State with an event score of 93.8958.
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