ST. PAUL, Minn. -- The St. Catherine University dance team will return to competition on Saturday, March 20 appearing in the Dance Team Union Spring Virtual Championships. 

The virtual championship will include over thirty programs from across the United States with the Wildcat dancers competing in the Collegiate Poms Division. The other collegiate programs that will appear in the championships on Saturday are North Central College, Henderson State University, Grand Valley State University, and Trinity Valley Community College. 

This will be the first time the Wildcats return to competition since February 2019 when they won the DX Americup Regional Championships when junior Mel Swanson was in her rookie season and head coach Alexa Boderman was in her second year at the helm. Since the last competitive season in 2019, veteran dancers Amie Dusterhoft and Alexa Rimer, now in their second year, have been joined by junior Makinzie Wulf and rookies Emily Borchardt and Ariana Velishek. Dusterhoft and Rimer, along with Swanson were all impacted by the competition season being canceled due to COVID-19 in 2020. 

Boderman said, "We are so excited and grateful to be competing this year. Due to the pandemic, our dancers had many months of practicing and learning their nationals routine virtual. They have put in an incredible amount of hard work and time into this year, to make the best out of a difficult situation. Although the competition season looks different than past years with us competing virtually, these dancers have shown a lot of passion, growth, and dedication to the program and they are excited to compete and leave their legacy as the 2021 team." 

The virtual championships broadcast will begin at 4:30 pm central time and can be viewed here: https://www.danceteamunion.com/springvirtualchampionship