On Saturday, March 21, our dance team made the trip down to Salem for the 2026 Dance State Championship. Hosted at the Salem Pavilion, the event featured two divisions: Class 5A and Class 1A/2A/3A/4A, with each team performing two different routines. Traditional and pom were the only two that Wilsonville competed in, but during regular-season competition, the team performs from a list that includes Jazz, Hip-Hop and Kick.
Traditional is exactly as it sounds: slow-paced and artistic, meant to create emotion and story through grace. The Wildcats kicked off the first round of routines with their traditional, and this year, the team took the stage to Just Yet by BIZZY.
Finishing their traditional routine with a score of 72.64 got the team a fifth-place finish, just behind Rex Putnam High School, which put up a score of 73.11. Not the outcome this squad was looking for, but unbeknownst to them, better things were on the horizon.
For their second and final routine before Drill Down, the team performed its pom sequence, but once again didn’t get the outcome it was hoping for. To the team’s credit, the pom division is expanded, meaning it runs from Class 5A all the way down to Class 1A, but nonetheless, the team would still receive seventh place with a final score of 75.8.
Now, a highlight from the competition: junior Onika Hernandez took home first place in Class 5A Drill Down — her second all-time and her third top-three finish.
This event marks the final milestone in the long and taxing season that is high school dance, from the halftime performances all the way back in September to the competitions that headline the year and put each athlete on a stage far grander than the 50-yard line. Now the only thing that separates us from next season is five months of warm weather and clear skies.