BLAINE — There was no question who the best team was Saturday, Jan. 28, at the Blaine Invite.
The Brainerd Warriors swept the kick and jazz competitions with matching 3-rank point wins and second place wasn’t very close.
Brainerd won the jazz competition with 400 total points compared to 356 for runner-up Blaine.
Brainerd scored a 43 in difficulty of skills and 42s out of 50 on visual effectiveness and routine effectiveness.
“What we’ll really be working on is turn technique,” Brainerd head coach Cindy Clough said. “We didn’t have our best turn day as the floor is really close to the audience and it was very slippery. We had a couple of slips and junior varsity had a fall. It was a harder floor to perform on, but it was still a good day.
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“We’ll continue to work on turn technique. Our lowest score was degree of accuracy and that would be sameness of the dancers. Everyone being exactly the same.”
Brainerd revamped its kick routine and the work paid off as it scored 430 total points to win the competition by 50 points over second-place Centennial. Out of 50 possible points, Brainerd scored 46s on visual and routine effectiveness. Brainerd also received 45s in creativity and difficulty of formation and transitions.
“We’re really happy that our creativity went up quite a bit,” Clough said. “Visual effectiveness we went up to a 46 and difficult of kick we got a 43 so those are all high. Where we’ll continue to keep working is technique of kick, height of kick and I think one of our lowest scores was placement and control. Both of those areas we’re going to really have to work on this week.”
Both creativity and visual effectiveness fall under the choreography umbrella, which is where Brainerd focused much of its changes to the routine.
Both Brainerd junior varsity teams also placed first giving the program a boost prior to the Section 4-3A meet Saturday.
“I think this boosted our kids,” Clough said. “I think it validated all the changes we made and hard work we put in. It shows their hard work wasn’t in vain. I think they’re excited going into sections.”
Team results
Jazz: 1-Brainerd (400 points, 3 rank points), 2-Blaine (356 points, 6 rank points), 3-Centennial 353 points, 10 rank points), 4-Duluth East (338 points, 12 rank points), 5-Andover (327 points, 15 rank points), 6-Forest Lake (330 points, 16 rank points), 7-Champlin Park (319 points, 19 rank points), 8-Rochester Century (271 points, 24 rank points), 9-St. Paul (256 points, 27 rank points), 10-Osseo (235 points, 30 rank points), 11-North St. Paul (186 points, 33 rank points)
Kick: 1-Brainerd (430 points, 3 rank points), 2-Centennial (380 points, 6 rank points), 3-Blaine (361 points, 9 rank points), 4-Forest Lake (351 points, 12 rank points), 5-Duluth East (330 points, 15 rank points), 6-Andover (309 points, 19 rank points), 7-Rochester Century (289 points, 21 rank points), 8-Champlin Park (283 points, 21 rank points), 9-St. Paul (239 points, 27.5 rank points), 10-Osseo (228 points, 29.5 rank points), 11-North St. Paul (178 points, 33 rank points).
Next: Brainerd in Section 4-3A Championship at St. Michael-Albertville 11 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 4.
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