by Ruby Krietzman, Staff Reporter

Two meets into the season and the Hopkins Royals Dance Team have a win under their belt.

On Saturday, November 23, the HRDT danced their way to the top at their jazz meet in Shakopee.

All three of the dance teams, including the varsity, JV, and B teams competed in the meet.

After taking a hard loss during their first meet of the season, the team had the chance to redeem themselves knowing that there would be many obstacles to overcome.

“We came off a bad performance from last time and we really had to get over that and move on. We had to put our best effort forward,” said Sydney Rosenzweig, senior and captain of the team.

The HRDT competed against Lakeville North, Shakopee, Roseville, and Minneapolis Southwest high schools with Lakeville North High School placing second and Roseville High School placing in third.

Sammi Lehman, sophomore, had a strong feeling that the team was going to place well from the start of their performance.

“The moment that I knew that we had a good chance of winning was during the first turn section. We were very together and I knew that we were performing well,” Lehman said.

The HRDT knew that they had many areas to improve in from the first meet and work together to pull out a win.

“We were more united as a team and it was less about individuals dancing on the floor. We danced more as a team,” Rosenzweig said.

Although the meet was not against teams within the Lake Conference, the HRDT are ready to take on their tough competitors.

“Hopefully we will use this win to fuel the fire for the meets in the future,” Rosenzweig said.