Jan. 24, 2013
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IOWA CITY, Iowa — The University of Iowa dance team and Herky the Hawk competed at the 2013 College Nationals, presented by Universal Cheerleaders Association/Universal Dance Association on Jan. 18-20. The Nationals took place at Disney World in Orlando, Fla.
The dance team qualified for Sunday’s finals for both their jazz and pom routines, after competing in the semifinal rounds on Saturday. This is the second consecutive year that the Hawkeyes qualified both routines into the finals.
Iowa competed against 25 of the top teams in the nation. The pom routine, with a sharp skills set and upbeat music from the early 90s, earned them a seventh place finish nationally. The jazz routine, set to the song `Unchained Melody’ featured high-level turns, leaps and lifts and earned a 12th place finish.
Herky was one of only 10 mascots invited to compete at Nationals out of more than 25 videos sent in. The judges looked at crowd entertainment, crowd participation, creativity, prop usage and overall energy. With his routine themed on the `Knights of Camelot’, Herky put on a knight costume, grabbed his lucky sword and placed eighth.