Halftime of basketball games is often a time for high school dance teams to perform, and the March 5 state playoff girls’ contest between Newtown and visiting East Hartford was no exception. In addition to dancing, however, the girls raised their third straight state championship banner. The Nighthawk dancers won the Jazz division and finished second in Hip-Hop the previous weekend.

“So proud — especially after losing seven seniors last year, it was great to be able to come back and do it again with a new group,” Coach Cheryl Stenz said.

The team worked on conditioning and the technical aspects of dance over the summer and started on choreography in August and September before showing its skills at halftime of football games, and later basketball contests when the dance competition season got going.

The loss of just one team member can throw off an entire routine, making the regroup after last year’s graduation a challenge the girls were clearly up for. The Nighthawks won the South-West Conference championship’s Hip Hop category for the second year in a row and were second in the conference’s Jazz routine.

Leading up to the state competition, the girls were hard at work refining their impressive performances daily. An injury to a team member left the Nighthawks having to tweak their routines in limited time.

“It threw everything off, but they all rallied together and made it work,” Stenz said.

Hip Hop choreographer Chris Lupis and Jazz choreographer Emily Marks helped lead the Nighthawk dancers. Team members are Grace Bianco, Kaitlyn Tripodi, Jillian Reilly, Melina Sagar, Ava Schwartz, Olivia Cavallero, Emily Dunford, Payten Krikorian, Kylee Raiano, Ericka Pontore, Kylie Maddox, Summer Gordon, Molly Moran, Olivia McAndrew, Adriana Russo, Sammy Kuruc, Caroline Hancock, Kyra Masone, Maya Renkert, Audrey Botta, and Grace Capelli.