Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

It’s impossible to faze the Austin Packer Dance Team with big meets. Instead, the team is driven by pressure from within to get back to the big stage.

The Packers are aiming to keep a longtime streak alive as the team has competed in 23 straight state meets. Austin is up to the task, but senior captain Lexie Yokiel knows that the path won’t be easy.

“I feel like we know what’s at stake and we know what we need to do to make our goals come true. We’re really pushing hard towards that end goal,” Yokiel said. “Since Minnesota is the state of dance, the bar has raised significantly in the past couple of years. We push through the hard practices and competitions, and we keep working to get better.”

Yokiel was also a captain last year when Austin took second in high kick and eighth in jazz at the state meet. This team has different faces, but the goals are still to be amongst the best at the end of the season.

“It’s been great, but our whole team pushes through as leaders,” Austin captain Mollie Williamson said. “We’re all strong minded and it feels great to lead a great group of girls and have them be by our side. I don’t think I’ve ever been on a team that’s worked so hard for what we want.”

While the desire to get back to state is always there, this year’s team has learned to focus on the present instead of the past or the future. Captain Savanna Morehouse said it’s important for each new group to build their own chemistry.

“Every team is a different set of girls and we just have to build new bonds with every new team that we have,” Morehouse said.

The team that works together grows together and Austin captain Kamryn Schewe has seen the squad come together as one throughout the year.

“Dancing as a team and a family is one of our main goals,” Schewe said. “I feel like we’re all together and the younger girls act so much older, that I forget how old they are.”

The Packers have one of their biggest weekends of the season coming up as they will compete in the Big Nine meet at Owatonna at 6 p.m. Friday and then they head to Totino-Grace for an invite at 8 a.m. Saturday.

The date circled on the Packers’ calendar is Feb. 8, when the team will compete in the Section 1AA meet in Northfield.

No matter how the season ends, captain Brenna Tschann wants to make sure the team reaches its potential.

“My goal is just to walk off the floor feeling proud of performance and being happy with how we performed and just being altogether as one,” Tschann said. “We have really positive mindsets and we know what needs to be done.”