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For some Austin Packer Dance Team members, the state meet will be their last hurrah. For others, the meet will be an early chapter in a lengthy journey.

Austin senior Lexie Yokiel is about to compete in her fifth state dance competition and she sees a little bit of her younger self in her eighth grade teammate Stella Thoma, who will be competing in her first state dance competition with APDT this weekend.

Yokiel, a two-year captain, has plenty of sage advice for Thoma and her other young teammates.

“Don’t be nervous or scared about performing, because it’s one of the best feelings,” Yokiel said. “You get to show and express your dance that you’ve been working so hard for the past couple of months.”

Thoma may be a little wide eyed when she hits the Target Center Floor under the bright lights, but she won’t be afraid. She’s going to do exactly what got the Packers to this point – work hard.

“The things that are hard are usually worth it. We did all of that work and now we get to go to state because of the work we put in,” Thoma said. “I’m excited for it. I’ve watched the APDT dancers since I was really little. I’m excited to be a part of it now.”

Austin, which took first in high kick and second in jazz to qualify for both at the Section 1AA meet in Northfield Saturday, will be competing in its 24th straight state meet. The team will compete in Target Center in Minneapolis on Friday and Saturday.

Yokiel said that she’s focusing on making her fifth state meet the best it can be.

“I’m trying to soak up every last moment that I have right now. It’s gone by really fast,” she said. “The pressure is still always there, but it makes it more fun to perform in front of all of these people with the lights shining down on you. One goal we can all agree on is that we want to have that top performance that we haven’t had yet.”

The state jazz competition will be held at 2 p.m. Friday and the state high kick competition will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday.

The finals for both events will be held at 7:15 p.m.

The Packers took second place in high kick and eighth place in jazz at the Class AA state meet in 2024.