Hardware Hawks!

Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn Dance Attack members needed to make room for extra cargo on their way home from Des Moines last week.

The team won several awards during the 47th annual Iowa High School and College State Dance Team Championships held at Wells Fargo Arena. The event featured 26 college teams and 255 high school teams performing nearly 620 routines plus 921 solos.

H-M-S Dance Attack earned honors in the following categories:

• Class I Lights, second place

• Class I Hoopla, Division I

• Class II Novelty, Division I

• Delaney Murphy solo Class III, Division II

• Distinguished Academic Award with a cumulative team GPA of 3.804

• Lois Turnage Outstanding Community Service Award for submitting 710.5 community service hours as a team

Coach Brittany Dolphin was ecstatic about the Hawks' performance.

"The team worked extremely hard throughout the past couple months and we are extremely happy with our results," she said. "We narrowly missed a trophy in Hoopla but improved our score from last year, which is all I can ask of the girls. Novelty was a fun learning experience and we are already dreaming up what we can do next year. Lights was really fun and we were thrilled to place, especially after learning the routine and practicing it in a total of five practices."

The championship contest in Des Moines is the country's largest high school dance team competition. H-M-S Dance Attack's roster is comprised of the following members: Morgan Grooters, Heather Elgersma, Delaney Murphy, Kinsey Schirmer, Emma Vollink, Meghan Larson, Lainie Raveling, Jamie Diaz, Frankie Mohni, Natalie Daggett, Payton Diehm, Jackie Gonzalez, Jordan Lux, Colie Tifft, Megan Otto and Abby Rons.

Though the team is still celebrating their achievements, Dolphin noted the girls are always looking ahead.

"We can't wait for next year," she said.