The Yelm High School Jazzline team traveled to Yakima to compete in the WIAA 2025 4A Dance/Drill State Championships on Saturday, March 29, performing in the hip hop and pom categories.
Despite placing 20th in hip hop out of 20 teams, and 16th in pom out of 21 teams, coach Stacie Lovato said she was proud of her team’s hard work and dedication throughout the season — including the state tournament.
“Being new to the 4A division, we were met with some nationally ranked teams, Pasco High School being one of those teams who just placed first at a national level competition,” Lovato told the Nisqually Valley News. “Jazzline put in hours and hours of hard work and it showed on the dance floor! It was the best they have done all season by far! Their energy, facials and technique were the best I’ve seen this season from them. Pom scored 10 points higher than they have all season.”
Throughout the season, the team consistently held state qualifying scores, according to Lovato.
“With the levy failure, we were not sure if Jazzline was going to be cut,” Lovato said. “Before the school year started, we decided not to have a varsity and JV team this year. We ended up with a performance team and a competition team. The performance team danced at parades, Christmas in the Park and the high school football and basketball half time. With the new format of having a performance team and a competition team, some of the JV dancers were able to move up to the competition team. These dancers were pushed and did a phenomenal job of rising to the level of their varsity dancers.”
Three Yelm dancers sang the national anthem at the state competition: Becca Rankin, Sariah Amalezola and Payton Short.
