On November 17, the Glitter Girls won the 5A State Championship for the second year in a row. Senior Co-Captain Meredith Heyka said the win meant a lot to her and her teammates. 

“I was really excited, obviously, and [I felt] a lot of relief, because there was just a lot of pressure from ourselves to win again,” Heyka said. “We knew how great it felt [to win] so we knew how hard we needed to work to get there and it felt really nice to have our hard work pay off.”

Despite the win, the team still has work to do. With various competitions and Nationals coming up after the break, senior Co-Captain Molly Hoggatt said there are many preparations to be made and dances to learn. 

“We start by learning our choreography, and then we clean it and use a rope to mark our spacing for where we’re supposed to go,” Hoggatt said. “Then [we] just run it a million times so that we’re ready to do our best on the competition day.”

Throughout the long practices and tiring days, Heyka and Hoggatt work together as co-captains to keep the team on track. 

“[Meredith] is one of my best friends so we are good at dividing and conquering and just kind of letting each other do our things and then collaborating on what we need to,” Hoggatt said.

The relationship between the two allows for them to be strong leaders and initiate unity among the team as a whole.

“I think it’s really important to remind everyone what we’re working for and why it’s so important to show up and get everything we can out of each practice,” Heyka said. “It can get exhausting and hard sometimes just because of how much we practice and how long our season is. But it’s important to remember why we do it, our purpose and our ‘why’ to keep going.”