McLennan Dance Company ranked fifth in the nation

The McLennan Dance Company is ranked fifth among the top 11 best dance teams in the nation, according to HerCampus.com, a website for college women written by the nation's top college journalists.

Under the direction of Sandy Hinton for 38 years, the McLennan squad has won 10 American Dance/Drill Team School National Championships in Division II  and three ADTS Collegiate Academic Championships. In 2011, the team won the National Dance Alliance Collegiate National Championship in Division III for the fourth time in school history. McLennan first won the competition in 2001 and completed a three-peat with wins in 2009, 2010 and 2011. The squad has finished in the top three six times in the last 10 years. In 2012, the team won the ADTS Division III Hip Hop and the NDA Division II Hip Hop title for the first time in school history. The squad captured its second consecutive ADTS hip hop title in 2013. Those teams have featured 26 All-Americans.

Kilgore College's world-famous Rangerettes, founded in 1939 as the first college dance team in the world, hold the top spot. Towson University's Dance Team, winners of 14 consecutive National Dance Alliance (NDA) national championships, ranks second. Rounding out the top five are Brigham Young University's Cougarettes, with 10 NDA championships, and the University of Louisville's Ladybirds, with nine NDA championships since 2002 and 13 top-five finishes in the last 19 years, at third and fourth, respectively.

For the complete list and performance videos of all the squads ranked, go to www.hercampus.com/life/11-best-college-dance-teams.