- Wearing Team USA colors, the Weber State dance team won Hip Hop gold and Jazz silver at the 2026 ICU Pan American Championships in Mexico City. Here is the result, the record behind it and the Utah people who built it.
- This story sits inside Utah's olympic sports lane and connects to the larger statewide sports picture.
- The story is backed by 12 sources and a visible last-verified date.
October 13, 2026
October 13, 2026
6 min / 1,230 words
12 official links
The Weber State University dance team represented the United States at the 2026 International Cheer Union (ICU) Pan American Championships in Mexico City on September 26, 2026, and came home with two medals. USA Cheer's official medal graphics, shared by the Weber State Dance Team in a collaboration post with USA Cheer, show the U.S. squad as gold medalists in the ICU Hip Hop Performance Cheer division and silver medalists in the Jazz division. The ICU's posted results table lists the U.S. National Team second in Jazz behind Mexico, with Barbados third; as of October 12 it had not posted a senior Hip Hop result.
The championships ran September 25-27 at Arena Borregos CEM in the State of Mexico, according to the ICU. Its Saturday running order for September 26 lists the U.S. National Team as the third of three teams in senior Hip Hop, with Colombia and Mexico, and the third of three in Jazz, with Barbados and Mexico. For a program from Ogden, it was the second time in three years wearing USA across the chest at a Pan American Championships.
How Weber State did at the 2026 Pan American Championships
In the gold-medal graphic posted afterward, roughly two dozen dancers in white USA Cheer tops and navy pants hold an American flag in front of a pyramid, with the line "2026 Pan American Champions, Mexico City, Mexico" printed beside the ICU logo. The Jazz graphic shows the same group wearing silver medals.
The Jazz silver came against a strong host nation. Mexico won the event on home soil, and the United States finished ahead of Barbados for second, according to the ICU table. That table also lists U.S. gold medals in Pom and Doubles Hip Hop at the same championships.
The 2024 run that set this up
Weber State had already shown it could win for its country. USA Cheer's official national-team history lists the 2024 ICU Pan American Championships in Ottawa, Canada, with "Hip Hop, represented by Weber State University" and "Jazz, represented by Weber State University," both marked gold. Hofstra University represented the U.S. in Pom at that event.
Earlier that year, Weber State had been selected to represent Team USA in the Premier Hip Hop category at the 2024 ICU World Championships, according to a Weber State Athletics release from April 13, 2024. The ICU's official 2024 Worlds results list the U.S. National Team first in the Hip Hop final, ahead of England and Mexico, with Ecuador, Australia, the Netherlands, Greece, Estonia and Korea following.
That made 2024 a three-gold international year for the Wildcats: world Hip Hop gold in Orlando, then Pan American gold in both Hip Hop and Jazz in Ottawa.
A Division I national championship record
The international medals sit on top of a national record that grew steadily. Weber State Athletics reported that the team won the Division I Jazz title at the 2024 NDA Collegiate Championships in Daytona Beach, Florida, with a score of 98.3429, "the best score of any school in any division in the competition," and then won the Jazz Grand National Championship. The Wildcats added the Division I Hip Hop title with a 95.5714. The school called it the program's fourth Hip Hop national title, including two of the last four years.
In 2025, Weber State did it again. The Wildcats won Division I Jazz with a score of 98, the best of 24 schools in the division, then won the Grand National title in Jazz with a 97.6571, ahead of Boise State and Davenport University. They repeated in Division I Hip Hop with a 92.3429, beating Elon, Sacred Heart, Sacramento State and Idaho State among others. Weber State called it the program's fifth Hip Hop national title, including three of the last five years.
A first trip to UDA, and another title
In January 2026, the program changed stages. Weber State entered the Universal Dance Association (UDA) College Nationals in Orlando for the first time and won the Division I Hip Hop national championship with a score of 94.1167, finishing ahead of St. John's, Utah Valley and Grand Canyon among others, according to Weber State Athletics. The Wildcats also placed third in Division I Jazz with a 93.1667.
The Signpost, Weber State's student newspaper, reported the margins: St. John's scored 92.5333 for second in Hip Hop and Utah Valley 91.4333 for third. Grand Canyon won Jazz with a 95.8667. The paper counted the UDA win as the team's sixth Hip Hop national title overall.
"We wanted to show the world what Weber is made of," head coach Erica Williams Jordan told The Signpost. "Our motto was 'We have nothing to prove, everything to show.'"
The Utah people behind the medals
Jordan is a Sandy native who captained the Brighton High School drill team, then danced four years for Arizona State, where she won a gold medal for Jazz at the 2013 ICU World Championships, according to her official Weber State bio. She joined Weber State's program in 2020 and also spent years as an assistant coach for the Hillcrest High School drill team.
Her younger brother, Carter Williams, has been the team's head captain. He spent part of the 2025-26 season in the "Dancing with the Stars" troupe and returned to compete at UDA. "He is our head captain, so when you lose a head captain for a minute, it is just tough," Jordan told The Signpost. "He just brings such a light and an energy, and he really makes a difference in the studio, as well as outside."
Williams described the season in one sentence: "This whole entire season has been so unconventional, but one of the best years of my life."
The work behind those few minutes on the floor is heavy. Before UDA, The Signpost reported the team was holding four-hour practices three days a week. Senior Molly Underwood called UDA "a little bit of a higher level than the National Dance Alliance," and added: "We bleed purple, we go to Weber State, and we just want to make our university proud." Senior Paezlei Holt put the team ethic simply: "There is no me in team, so everything you do is together."
What comes next for Weber State Dance
USA Cheer's events page lists the next ICU Pan American Championships for Quito, Ecuador, October 8-10, 2027, represented by the 2027 U.S. National Team. Closer to home, the Wildcats perform at Weber State games and university events through the winter. Our Weber State school page has the university's Division I athletics teams, conference and coverage, and Utah women's sports collects more of the state's championship programs.
Key facts:
- Team: Weber State University dance team, Ogden, Utah; head coach Erica Williams Jordan (Sandy native)
- 2026 Pan Americans: Gold in ICU Hip Hop Performance Cheer and silver in Jazz for Team USA, Mexico City, Sept. 26, 2026 (USA Cheer medal graphics; ICU table lists U.S. second in Jazz)
- 2024 internationals: ICU World Championships Hip Hop gold; ICU Pan American gold in Hip Hop and Jazz (Ottawa)
- Hip Hop national titles: five NDA titles through 2025, per Weber State; the 2026 UDA title made six, per The Signpost
- NDA Jazz: Division I and Grand National champion in 2024 (98.3429) and 2025 (98, then 97.6571)
- UDA debut, Jan. 2026: Division I Hip Hop champion (94.1167); third in Jazz (93.1667)
- Next Pan Americans: Quito, Ecuador, Oct. 8-10, 2027
