The De Soto High School Diamonds Dance team, made up of seniors Kelsey Mills, Christa Stenzel, Madeline Keleher, junior Kelsey Vila, sophomores Charisa Dodd, Elizabeth Seidl, AJ Hanson and freshman Kennedy Essary, Emma Leonard and Olivia Mills, swept away their competition the weekend of Jan. 23-25 by placing in the top five at Olathe East High School.

       The DHS Diamonds have been working very hard all year and proved themselves by making it into the winners circle at the competition. They also had many other small group and individual routines place there as well.

“It was so awesome getting to preform with my team because we work so hard every week,” senior dance team captain Kelsey Mills said. “It was nice being rewarded for that.”

Their schedule consisted of a small group routine, three full team performances, two duet dances, and three solos. Both duets placed in in the winners circle, along with all full team performances and one of the solos.

This excellent outcome would not have been possible without the help of the dance team coaches Mckenzi Crow and Emily Thayer Mills said.

“We’ve been very lucky to have (Crow and Thayer),” Mills said, “They’ve only made the team better.”

Although it was nice for them to have done so well, freshman Emma Leonard said that her favorite part of the competition was how it brought the team closer together.

“I really got to know some of the girls over the course of the competition, which was really awesome,” Leonard said.

The Diamonds didn’t just make it into the winners circle, but, because of their exemplary  performance, they also qualified for Nationals which will be held in Dallas, Texas this spring break.

Along with that, they still have a few more local competitions coming up before they leave for Texas.

So far the DHS Diamonds Dance team has worked very hard this season and have shown it by how well they’ve already done at competitions.