UT's dance team claimed its sixth national championship on Sunday, just a few days after the cheerleaders were victorious at the 2020 UCA & UDA College Cheerleading and Dance National Championships.
The team has had a lot of previous success in the jazz category with five previous national championships. This victory came in the pom category, which UT has only competed in twice before.
"We knew we could do it when we were first in semifinals (Saturday)," senior dancer Laura Skipper said. "We knew we just had to make a few things better, and that's what we were able to do."
Tennessee's dance team is one of the most decorated programs in the country, according to UT Sports.
The cheer team won the national championship in the Game Day Competition on Friday. Tennessee's Spirit program was the only Division 1A program in the nation to claim at least one national title this year in all three spirit categories – cheer, dance and mascot. Costumed Smokey has claimed three national titles in the mascot division.
All three teams also earned additional top-10 finishes this weekend, with Smokey finishing sixth in mascot finals, dance claiming fifth place in the jazz dance routine and cheer finishing sixth in cheer routine, their highest finish in that category since 2012. For the second year in a row, only Tennessee and Ohio State placed all three teams in the top-10 of Division 1A.