The Murphysboro High School competitive dance team gave it their all on Friday, but fell short of making the cut to compete on Saturday in the Class 1A IHSA state finals.
Still, Murphy was among a mere handful of southern Illinois dance teams to be invited to the 2018 state championships at all. Another local team, Nashville, also did not advance to Saturday.
"Our girls worked so hard to get here and always put their blood, sweat and tears into every performance," said Murphysboro Coach Krista O'Dell.
She said they were extremely sharp on Friday, with amazing energy.
"This group of girls has made us coaches so unbelievably proud," O'Dell added. "They danced their hearts and looked absolutely amazing on that floor. We couldn't have asked for a better team or performance!"
The team's pom dance routine was built around a Storm theme, she said.
The Murphy team finished 21st out of 30 Class 1A teams invited to complete in the finals. Only the top 10 come back on Saturday.
