The University of Iowa dance and cheer teams placed 9th and 11th, respectively, at the Universal Dance Association’s Nationals in Orlando, Florida, this year, closing out their first season training in their newly built practice facility.
The $20 million Nagle-Duda Gymnastics & Spirit Squads Training Center opened in early 2025, and the Spirit Squad, which includes the UI dance team, cheer team, and Herky security team, began training there in February 2025.
Head Dance Coach Jennifer Eustice said the new facility brought stability to a usually hectic nationals season.
“I think that having the facility really kept our nationals preparation calm because we weren’t worried about figuring out practice space or working around a million other schedules,” Eustice said.
Before moving into the facility in February 2025, the dance and cheer teams rotated between several campus locations, including Halsey Hall, the UI dance building; the Field House, the university’s west side olympic weightlifting and recreational gym; and Carver-Hawkeye Arena, none of which fully matched their competition conditions, lacking the correct floors or the space they needed, Eustice said.
Their new facility, by contrast, is equipped with competition floors, a built-in sound system, whiteboards, designated locker rooms, video review systems, and more.
Senior dance team member Katelyn Lookingbill said the facility made a huge difference this season, both in how the team trained and how they felt walking into nationals.
“We just really feel appreciated and valued for all that we do, and we are very grateful,” Lookingbill said. “We are the only Division I program in the country that has their own practice space that was built and designed specifically for them, which is really cool.”
Lookingbill said the facility also improved the team’s ability to perfect their performances for nationals in a way they were not able to in the Field House.
“Just like any sport or competition performance, the better you can emulate your performance space right in a practice setting, the more successful you are once you get to the big stage,” Lookingbill said. “I think the facility was a big factor in that.”
Eustice, who has spent 17 years at the university and has been in the dance industry since she was 3 years old, said the change also transformed the team dynamic because for the first time, instead of teams splitting up across campus, the spirit programs trained alongside one another and cheered each other on all season.
“It’s definitely more of a collaborative experience, which I think was really fun and exciting for the athletes themselves because they know that they have that support system,” she said.
This sense of collaboration extended beyond the dance team. Spirit Squad coordinator and head cheer coach Gregg Niemiec, who has led Iowa cheerleading for 30 years, said the cheer team also saw immediate benefits.
“I think that being in our own facility helped people concentrate, helped people stay focused on what the goal was,” Niemiec said. “I can’t exactly say that volleyballs and pickleballs bouncing on our mats is the safest thing while we’re flying through the air.”
Niemiec said the increase in focus was especially noticeable as the team prepared for their competition season this year.
“I think they really wanted to go out giving the best they possibly could to Iowa cheerleading and Iowa spirit squads,” Niemiec said. “I think that there was a lot of progress made in their skills, and then the mindset of what they’re doing as cheerleaders, to get out there and get the crowd going, too.”
At UDA Nationals, the UI dance team made finals and placed 9th in the country in the pom category, and the UI cheer team placed 11th overall. The dance team competes at nationals every year, and they didn’t make finals in 2024. Lookingbill said that contributed to the motivation they had this year.
“I’m grateful for my teammates and the drive that all 22 of us had because dance is a team sport,” Lookingbill said. “You have to have that fight in you, that you constantly want more, and that you can’t settle. And I think that’s something that we did a really good job of this year.”
Both coaches said their teams went into nationals this year with the hardest routines they had ever done, and said the members and leaders of the UI Spirit Squad gave their performances their all.
“One of the things I told [the dance team] after they came off the floor from pom finals was that now we know what it takes,” Eustice said. “That’s the bar, that’s the standard. Every year from now on, we’re going to continue to grow and level up.”