The Whitman poms team took home the first place trophy on Saturday afternoon in the Blake High School invitational, their third competition of the year.

The Vikes placed first in the Division 1 event after excellent technical dance execution and choreography. The dancers defeated six teams, including Sherwood and Damascus, which came in second and third place, respectively. The Vikes superb performance was divided into three different musical sections: a jazz routine, a poms routine to the song “Sweet Dreams” by Eurythmics and finally a hip-hop routine to the song “M.A.A.D. City” by Kendrick Lamar. All three routines received scores of at least nine out of 10 possible points.

After a disappointing and underachieving performance in the last event, the poms team locked in for this competition and never gave up, senior captain Sadie Eisenberg said.

“Getting first place at the competition can be attributed to our perseverance. Our performance the weekend before motivated us to make small changes to our routine and practice until we felt confident,” Eisenberg said. “Going into counties this weekend, we are keeping our focus on refining our routine and supporting our fellow teammates”.

On top of the poms team’s excellent performance, the Whitman drumline also stood out, winning the best drumline award for the weekend.

The Vikes will look to build on their impressive performance next Saturday afternoon in the county championship at Blair High School. 

This story was updated at 11:26 p.m. on Jan. 31 to correct the location of the team’s next competition and include additional competition details.