Press release from Mars Hill University:
They’ve done it again!
The Bailey Mountain Cloggers, Mars Hill University’s championship precision clogging team, won yet another national title at the America’s Clogging Hall of Fame (ACHF) National Clogging Championships in Gatlinburg, Tenn., Oct. 25-26.
The team received the overall highest score at the competition in the Young Adult Age Division, receiving the national title for Overall Traditional Team. BMC received four grand champion awards in the categories of: Overall Southern Appalachian Dance, Precision, Smooth, and Running Set Precision.
The team also received first runner up awards in the categories of Open Contemporary Team and Open Traditional Team.
In addition to the team awards, a number of Mars Hill’s cloggers won individual awards.
- Enrique Rodriguez and Morgan Murphy won a national title for Overall Buck and Wing Traditional Duet.
- Sammy Locklear won a national title for Overall Contemporary Male of the year. He also won third place in choreographed solos.
- Bailey Clayton won two national titles for Overall Traditional Male of the Year, and for Flatfoot Dancer of the Year. He also won the Opry Dance-Off Award, and he will be traveling to the Carolina Opry in Myrtle Beach S.C., next summer to dance with All That.
- Augusta Holder won the ACHF Scholarship that will assist with her university tuition.
- Jackie Freeman and Dayleigh Martin were inducted into the All American Clogging Hall of Fame, which is an elite group of cloggers that directors nominate each year. These dancers are watched throughout the season and elected to the team by the ACHF board. It is a great honor of a select few each year.
- Travis Davis placed third in Traditional and Flatfoot Solos.
- Morgan Leverett placed second in Choreographed and Contemporary Solos and won first runner up overall choreographed solo.
- Morgan Leverett and Augusta Holder won third place in Short Duets.
Danielle Buice-Plimpton, Director of the Bailey Mountain Cloggers said: “This weekend has been an incredible blessing to BMC and to me. These students have worked so hard since the beginning of this semester, and they have made me so incredibly proud. It’s not about the awards, it’s about how they have come together as a family with the new members and freshmen, learned nine new dances, and competed with thirteen dances. I’m honored to call myself their director. And we are all honored to bring home another traditional national title to Mars Hill University.”
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