Baker Dance Secures Top-10 Finish, Cheer Debuts at 2026 NAIA Championships

TOPEKA, Kan. - The Baker cheer and dance teams took to the national stage on Friday and Saturday, competing at the 2026 Nfinity NAIA Cheer and Dance National Championships at the Stormont Vail Events Center.

Serving as one of the hosts alongside Visit Topeka, the Wildcats highlighted their weekend with a ninth-place finish from the dance squad while BU cheer made its NAIA debut.

The Baker dance team turned in an overall score of 83.18 to place ninth among a stacked 12-team field. The Wildcats opened the weekend with a strong preliminary performance on Friday, posting an 83.58 to secure the eighth-best score of the day.

St. Ambrose, which will be joining the Heart of America Conference next year, won the dance national championship in a neck-and-neck finish that saw the top-three spots separated by 0.33 points.

In the program's first-ever national appearance, Baker cheer came in 15th after earning an 80.94 for its overall tally. The Wildcats started off with a top-10 performance in the prelims, marking a score of 83.23.

Xavier claimed the NAIA cheer title with a comfortable three-point gap between the Gold Rush (96.13) and runner-up Indiana Wesleyan (92.72).

With the cheer team wrapping up its historic 2026 season, the dance squad will compete next at the 2026 DTU College Classic on April 10-12 in Orlando, Fla.

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