photo by UT Athletics
Tennessee dance added to its legacy as one of the most decorated programs in the country after claiming its sixth national championship on Sunday at the 2020 UCA & UDA College Cheerleading and Dance National Championships.
The championship came in an unexpected way for the squad. The previous five national championships were the result of the team’s jazz performances, but championship number six came from its pom performance.
This was just the third year Tennessee dance competed in the pom category and was the first time the team advanced to finals.
“We knew we could do it when we were first in semifinals (Saturday),” senior dancer Laura Skipper said. “We knew we just had to make a few things better, and that’s what we were able to do.”
With the addition of Tennessee cheer’s first-ever national championship in the Division 1A Game Day Competition on Friday, Tennessee’s Spirit program became the only Division 1A program in the nation to claim at least one national title in all three spirit categories – cheer, dance and mascot. Costumed Smokey has claimed three national titles in the mascot division.
All three teams also earned additional top-10 finishes this weekend, with Smokey finishing sixth in mascot finals, dance claiming fifth place in the jazz dance routine and cheer finishing sixth in cheer routine, their highest finish in that category since 2012. For the second year in a row, only Tennessee and Ohio State placed all three teams in the top-10 of Division 1A.