April 8, 2005

Daytona Beach, Fla. - The Miami University Dance Team has had a year filled with many successes and ended the season on a high note on April 8, 2005. Miami placed 9th among Division 1A dance teams in the country in the National Dance Alliance (NDA) Collegiate National Championships held in Daytona Beach, Florida on April 6-10.

Miami is extremely pleased with a Top 10 finish its first year competing nationally. The program went to the next level this year, not only performing for entertainment at basketball games and campus events but also at intercollegiate competitions at the National level.

Last August, the team had already qualified for Nationals by placing third in Division 1A at the NDA camp dance competition in Louisville, KY. In December's video ranking of competing teams, Miami received a 5th place national ranking and earned a paid bid to the National Championship. The dance team members prepared for the competition with hard work and dedication, including frequent practices throughout the year, maintaining a strength training program, remaining in Oxford over spring break for practice, and attending several regional competitions in Columbus, Ohio.

Over two hundred cheer and dance teams attended Nationals, with twenty-one teams competing in Division IA Dance. All twenty-one teams competed in the preliminary competition on Thursday, April 7th, and only about half of those teams, including Miami, advanced to finals. The scores in both rounds were close, with Miami finishing just three-hundredths of a point behind the next-highest team.

NDA National Finalist rankings on April 8th, 2005

1. Brigham Young University
2. University of Louisville
3. University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
4. Rutgers University
5. Duke University
6. Penn State University
7. North Carolina State University
8. Ohio State University
9. Miami University
10. University of South Carolina
11. Iowa State University
12. Clemson University

Other competing teams in Division IA (did not advance to finals):

Florida State University
Purdue University
Texas Christian University
University of Kentucky
University of Colorado-Boulder
University of Georgia
University of Pittsburgh
University of Wyoming
Virginia Tech

The Division IA Cheer and Dance competition will be aired on CBS Sports this Saturday, April 23rd, at 2:00 PM EST. The top five teams will be shown in entirety, but clips of all finalists including Miami should be shown as well.

For more information about the team, visit www.muohio.edu/danceteam.

For more information about the NDA Collegiate National Championship and to see full results and scores from the championships, visit www.Nationalspirit.com.