Two members of the Chester High School Dance Team earned all-state honors.

Kylie Fortner and Paige Vasquez both were named to the all-state team.

The CHS dance team finished seventh in the Illinois Dance Team Association (IDTA) state finals Feb. 12 at Bloomington.

Chester was seventh in the pom/dance division.

The team qualified for IDTA State this past weekend of Feb. 5 in Highland. With Covid still running rampant, competitions have been quite crazy. There have been many schools dropping out but luckily the team has been able to keep Covid away for all competitions.

They have worked really hard these past few weeks to reach their goal of qualifying. Highland was the last competition to try and reach a qualifying score. While the girls sat in their huddle on court, a wave of sadness and anxiousness definitely came through the group. They knew that if they did not meet a qualifying score, this would be the seniors’ last competition for their dance career. The announcers did place awards first and named off the top 3. Chester was not named for a trophy so the group started to get nervous. They started to announce State qualifiers. A short while later, Chester was named for a State qualifier. The girls were definitely overjoyed and so proud of themselves that they had reached their goal of qualifying.

The Chester Dance Team will be traveling to Springfield this coming weekend to compete with many other dance teams across the state.

Coaches are Adrianne Kern and Emily Eggemeyer.
Team members are Kylie Fortner, Maria Nickle, Paige Vasquez, Kaylie Springston, Grace Welborn, Hailey Clendenin, Amanda Kennon, Mirra Krieg, Summer Valleroy and Whitney Sulser.