Cheer Prelim Results | Dance Prelim Results

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – In its first trip the National Dance Association (NDA) National Championships, the University of Pikeville advanced to the finals with a top-five performance in preliminaries. UPIKE cheer just missed the cut for the National Cheerleaders Association (NCA) Finals, but went on to tally a runner-up finish in the Challenge Cup on Thursday.

Dance is set to compete in the NAIA Small Team Performance Finals between 1:30 and 3 p.m. ET on Friday. Results will be posted here on UPIKEBears.com and tweeted @UPIKEAthletics as soon as they are available.

UPIKE finished fourth out of 10 teams in the dance prelims, grabbing a score of 8.443. The top five teams qualified for the finals as Ottawa (Kan.) led the way with a score of 8.695, William Penn (Iowa) was second with 8.452 and Davenport (Mich.) rounded out the top three with 8.449.

In the cheer prelims, the Bears tallied a score of 83.03 to finish seventh out of 12 squads. The top six scorers advanced to Friday's finals and UPIKE missed the cut by less than a point as Lindenwood-Belleville (Ill.) grabbed sixth place with a score of 83.55.

Missouri Valley had the highest prelim score at 89.78, Oklahoma City was second (87.63) and Martin Methodist (Tenn.) took third (85.33). Campbellsville (Ky.), the only other Mid-South Conference squad at nationals, finished ninth with a score of 82.58.

The six teams that missed the finals' cut advanced to the Challenge Cup held Thursday evening where the Bears took second place.

While dance's team performance in the finals will take center stage on Friday, the Bears will also compete in the Division II Hip-Hop prelims that night at 5:20 p.m., with a chance to advance to those finals on Saturday as well.