{"id":34540,"date":"2026-03-24T21:43:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T21:43:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/34540\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T21:43:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T21:43:07","slug":"lebanons-dancers-third-at-state-championships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/34540\/","title":{"rendered":"Lebanon\u2019s dancers third at state championships"},"content":{"rendered":"

It may not have been quite the finish that Lebanon\u2019s Explosion Dance Team has gotten used to in recent years, but the Warriors overcame some big hurdles this season to walk away with two third-place trophies from Saturday\u2019s OSAA Dance\/Drill State Championships in Salem.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Lebanon has finished first or second in the 5A division every year \u2013 other than the COVID shutdown \u2013 since Coach Megan Lofton took over in 2019.<\/p>\n

This year, Lofton said, she attempted to retire but it didn\u2019t work out. She was named the Lebanon Chamber of Commerce\u2019s Junior First Citizen earlier this month in recognition of her participation in a wide variety of community activities, including the Strawberry Festival parade and downtown events through the Lebanon Downtown Association. She also volunteers with an elementary school multiple times a week, all while working full time and raising her two young children.<\/p>\n

But, Lofton said, \u201cthings just were not working out well\u201d for the dance program at the high school, noting that her replacement coach left midway through the football season.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u201cThey were kind of scrambling to find someone to take the program over.\u201d<\/p>\n

She agreed to return on an \u201cinterim\u201d basis.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey needed routines,\u201d said Lofton, who started with the Explosion as its choreographer, right out of high school, before moving up to assistant, then to head coach.\u00a0 \u201cI had longstanding relationships with these kids and their parents,\u201d Lofton said. \u201cHonestly, because everyone has their own process, I felt so far behind.\u201d<\/p>\n

One positive: She had experience to work with.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>This year\u2019s team has five seniors \u2013\u00a0 Kaiyah Allen, Bryce Barber, Alley Gutierrez, Ilikea Howerton and Addison Raymond, \u2013 and six juniors, Addison Baldwin, Taylie Dalebout, Inez O\u2019Driscoll, Lucy O\u2019Driscoll, Callie Steinhebel and Sophia Vitali.<\/p>\n

Sophomore Addison Keene and freshman Reese King rounded out this year\u2019s roster.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was so helpful,\u201d Megan said of the returnees. \u201cThey knew how things ran, how to operate when I came back, even though we were behind. They knew the slack had to pick up and they knew what they wanted to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy goal was just to qualify for state. I never thought we would be as competitive as we were.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Lofton put together routines for the Explosion in the Pop and Jazz competition divisions, which are the ones Lebanon had been highly successful in over the past several years. She got help from her assistant over the past few years, Trinidy Immel.<\/p>\n

In the Jazz competition, dancing to \u201cDream On,\u201d they were third with 79.14 points in a fairly close points race won by Silverton (82.06), with Canby second (81.17).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>In Pom, it was even tighter at the top, with West Albany first (81.31), followed by Parkrose (80.69) and Lebanon (79.36) in an 11-team field.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was kind of a crazy season,\u201d Lofton said. \u201cI\u2019m thankful for the help from all the parents.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really didn\u2019t expect to place as high as we did.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone stepped up to the plate.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It may not have been quite the finish that Lebanon\u2019s Explosion Dance Team has gotten used to in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34541,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[15557,93,549],"class_list":{"0":"post-34540","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-lebanon","8":"tag-dance","9":"tag-lebanon","10":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116286338026047144","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34540\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}