FREMONT, Neb. – The College of Saint Mary competitive dance team appears to be peaking at the right time.

The Flames turned in their best two scores of the season on Saturday at the Midland Invitational, placing fifth of seven teams in Round 1 with a 76.92 and fourth of six teams in Round 2 with a total of 76.67.

CSM Coach Jennifer Wasik said the effort was even more impressive considering two of the 10 dancers were out due to illness.

"We had two strong performances today,'' she said. "We weren't even able to adjust formations. Even with a smaller group, we brought great energy and are showing our progress.''

In Round 1, Midland University won with a 95.17 and was followed by Concordia University (87.79), Viterbo University (84.29), Briar Cliff University (77.79), CSM, York University (71.00) and Hastings College (69.83).

Concordia didn't dance in the second round. Midland won again with a 95.71 and was followed by Viterbo (86.29), Briar Cliff (77.79), CSM, York (71.42) and Hastings (70.17).

"We're very thankful to have a weekend off next week before GPAC, so we can hopefully recoup and get back to full strength to finish the season strong,'' Wasik said. "We definitely plan to make some additional adjustments to choreography to better highlight our strengths before GPAC.''

The GPAC Championships will be Friday, March 6, in Orange City, Iowa, hosted by Northwestern College.