PORTLAND Grant Union Gold danced to a fourth-place finish last week at the 2012 Oregon State Activities Association Dance & Drill Championships.

The 13 dancers from Grant Union High School skillfully executed a challenging technical routine, choreographed to Ludovico Einaudis Divenire. In Italian, divenire means to become, evolve.

Their performances Wednesday and Thursday evenings earned an averaged score of 64.64, putting the dance team behind Valley Catholic, Amity and Santiam in the 3A/2A/1A category.

The girls improved over last year, where they placed fifth of seven teams in the division.

Im proud of our girls. They did a beautiful job, said coach Shannon Adair. They placed higher last year. I consider that a success.

In 2011, they finished behind Valley Catholic, Santiam, Amity and Bandon.

Again this year, Valley Catholic flew to an almost flawless first place that gained high praise from judges. The second through fourth places were close, within points of each other.

Our whole division was pretty competitive this year, said Adair. From the technical aspect, we had a great response from the audience.

The girls, performing in the expansive Portland Memorial Coliseum, made a few mistakes each evening in otherwise beautiful performance, she noted.

I wished it wouldve gone a bit better, but Im really proud of the girls. This was probably one of the most complex routines weve ever done, Adair said. This was her 15th year as coach of the team.

Dancing this year for Grant Union Gold were Kyra Adair, Hannah Andrews, Megan Cameron, Taylor Douglass, Lacey Elliott, Carli Gardner, Cherise Holmstrom, Jennifer McCloskey, Ashleigh Sampley, Samantha Snyder, Auna Waldner, Lindsey Webb and Lindsey Weymouth.

The team should be strong again next year. Adair said the Gold will lose its sole senior, Sampley, who has been captain the last two years.

Adair knows of three eight-graders planning to join GU Gold, and anticipates several others will also join.

I expect to have a good-sized team next year. Well be very experienced, she said, and we can push even harder.

Joining Adair as assistant coach was Laci Powell, a GU Gold alum, now captain of the Eastern Oregon University dance team.

Scores of the teams in the 3A/2A/1A category:

Valley Catholic 78.19

Amity 69.64

Santiam 66.31

Grant Union 64.64

Bandon 61.445

Portland Lutheran 58.28