The Crystal Lake Central competitive dance team advanced to the second day of the IHSA Competitve Dance State Finals by finishing in sixth place in Class 2A at the U.S. Cellular Coliseum in Bloomington.

The Tigers finished with a score of 87.10, good enough to advance to the second day of competition for the third straight year. Central was the only local team to advanc and will perform at 2:48 p.m. Saturday at the Coliseum.

“I am so incredibly proud of how they did today,” Central coach Alli Tevyaw said. “I think that they had a really good performance, but there is definitely things that can be improved upon for tomorrow’s performance.”

The dance program continues to succeed at Central, with the team advancing at state yet again. They won the state title in competitive dance’s first year being recognized by the IHSA in 2013 and finished eighth last year.

“My assistant coaches and I are so proud and grateful for the wonderful girls we have in the program, and I think the unique thing about this year is how they completely shattered our expectations being such a young team.,” Tevyaw said.

“They have completely surpassed everything that we thought they would be able to do this year.”

The Tigers entered the season with lower expectations with 13 of their 18 girls  having never participated at state. Senior Captain Brittany Hayes said that only further motivated the returning dance members.

“I am so proud of my team. We definitely killed it out there and gave it everything,” Hayes said. “I’m excited that we made the second day with such a young team. We knew all the potential we had and wanted to do everything in our power to help our freshmen and everybody new to the team reach their potential, and we did that.”

Four other local teams competed at state, including Jacobs, which finished 15th in the 3A portion of the competition with their highest state score in school history, 88.14. This was also Jacobs’ third time advancing to state. The Golden Eagles previously finished 16th and 20th.

“We feel really good about it,” Jacobs coach Allison Lichtenheld said. “We did everything completely different this year. We did more of a contemporary style and knew it was a risk, but they really put everything out on the floor, and we are so proud of how they pulled together as a team.”

In Class 2A, Crystal Lake South finished 18th with an 81.16, and Cary-Grove was 24th of the 30 teams with a 78.28.

Johnsburg was the only local team in the 1A portion at state, finishing 19th with a score of 80.86.