Crossing their fingers as they waited to be called, the Starlettes had tears of joy as they found out they had won nationals.

The Starlettes made history on March 24 after winning nationals on their division for the first time. Before going to nationals, they competed in regionals at Clear Lake High School on Feb. 17. In addition, they participated in the state competition at Cypress Ranch on March 3.

“After being in the drill team for four years, that was probably the highlight of my high school career,” senior Megan Brieden said.

At nationals, the Starlettes performed three team dances of military, lyrical and broadway production; two dances lyrical, and an open-sectioned dance performed by the elite team supernovas; and two officer dances against four schools.

“All the hard work paid off because we got recognized as the best team and our director was proud of our performance,” sophomore Paola Velazquez said

The officer dances were novelty and lyrical dances performed by Megan Brieden, senior Heather Bridges, senior Shannan Monych, senior Sidney Gates and junior Lauren Bailey. Because of their performance, they won a technique award.

“Being and officer means being the example and being that person your team can trust no matter what is happening,” officer Heather Bridges said.

The biggest challenge the Starlettes had during competition season were the injuries that were near competition day, causing them to make last-minute formation changes.

“We always practiced every single day,” board officer Lucia Maldonado said, “Either in the morning or in the afternoon and for that we got to earn National Championships.”

During the Starlette banquet on May 7, they announced the 2019-2020 board officers and dance officers.

New board officers include sophomore Paola Velazquez as president, sophomore Lisa Burleson as vice president, junior Alyssa Richardson as vice president, sophomore Lucia Maldonado as secretary, and both sophomore Alyssa Brown and sophomore Kenya Castro as spirit leaders.

The dance officers are sophomore Kaitlyn Clark as lieutenant colonel. Junior Sarah Pineda as major. Junior Nancy Ramirez, sophomore Alyssa Mazy, freshman Kylie Colson and freshman Kaylee Holbert as lieutenants.