As the Poms competition came to an end and the second and third places for the captain’s award were being announced, senior captain Alexa Brodsky didn’t think she had any chance to win the award given to the best team captain in the competition.

“I was hoping I would be able to place at all and when they called third place and second place I thought it was over,” Brodsky said.

However, the announcements were far from over and before she knew it the rest of the second place poms team was piled on top of her.

“They called Whitman and my entire team jumped on top of me and my co-captains started crying,” Brodsky said.

Along with her first place finish individually, the Poms team finished second overall with a strong six-minute performance.

After finishing sixth or worse in all of last year’s competitions, this year’s captains decided to make sure all of the songs they selected were high energy and that the choreography be spot on.

“The routine made by the captains this year highlighted our strengths as a team which made it easier to execute,” junior Louise Amat said. “We had good spotlights and worked really hard perfecting the dance.”

The team also decided to keep the same routine for all of its competitions, just a week or two apart, instead of taking the time to change the dance for each performance and put extra time into coming up with a new original dance, Brodsky said.

Coach Kayla Collins said she was very excited to see Brodsky and the team do so well after the work they have put in this year.

“I am so proud of the enthusiasm the whole squad put into this routine,” Collins said. “They deserved to be rewarded for their hard work and I couldn’t be happier for them.”

As for Brodsky, she said the best part of her first place finish wasn’t winning, but the reaction she got from the rest of the team and fellow captains.

“Honestly the best part about winning the award was seeing how proud my teammates were of me as their captain,” Brodsky said.

The team will now travel to Damascus for its next competition, Saturday Jan. 18 at 2 pm, and will try to knock off the first place finishers from last weekend, the Poolesville Falcons.