Carmel comes out on top in Indiana, Daniel Hand continues its dominance of New England, Westside bests the meeting of the Midwest, and Johnston scores a decisive sweep at Urbandale in this week’s recap!
Pike MusicFest Final Results
GC: Carmel “Ambassadors” (BC)
1RU: Franklin Central “F.C. Singers” (BV, BB)
2RU: Center Grove “Sound System”
3RU: North Central “Counterpoints”
4RU: Lawrence Central “Central Sound”
In a matchup that lived up to all of the hype that was given to it (and there was a lot), Carmel came home with one of the three major captions. In a nice bonus, they also came home with the first-place trophy. Franklin Central clearly gave them a run for their money, grabbing the vocal caption and the band caption. Center Grove came home in a solid podium position, and while North Central finished last of the four titans at Pike, there is a good chance that they still have an incredibly dangerous show this year. There was no public livestream, so only time will tell. The womens finals were a little bit of a shakeup, with Center Grove’s Debtones taking the win as well as the choreography caption and a share of the vocal caption. Carmel Accents came in second with the band caption and the other share of the vocal caption. Franklin Central High Voltage was third and North Central Descants rounded out the four power players in that division. Of note, Carmel’s mixed and womens groups both took home the Most Creative Show caption in their respective divisions.
Tantasqua Show Choir Spectacular Results
Large Mixed
1st: Daniel Hand “VIBE” (BV, BC, BB)
2nd: Waltham “Music Unlimited”
3rd: South Windsor “Choral Spectrum”
Small Mixed
1st: Scranton “First Edition” (BV, BC, BB)
2nd: Bishop Hendricken “Paramount”
3rd: Leominster “Ignition”
After earning a single grand championship during the 2022 season, Daniel Hand is back to its usual ways. VIBE has now swept all three competitions it has entered in the 2023 season. Waltham, for its part, seems to be the premier Massachusetts show choir for the year, earning a gold medal and placing two spots ahead of perhaps its closest in-state competition, Shepherd Hill. South Windsor, while placing last of the big three at this competition, remains a dangerous program, and has a good shot to earn a podium at Daniel Hand, which is the only one of their future competitions with a public schedule. Scranton was the only group in small mixed to earn a gold medal (or rating), and claimed a second straight small mixed win along the way. In large mixed, the bottom three groups – Shepherd Hill in fourth and Andover and Lowell in a tie for fifth – all scored silver medals, meaning that Scranton would likely have challenged for a podium spot in large mixed at this competition.
Troy Buchanan Show Choir Invitational Final Results
GC: Westside “Amazing Technicolor Show Choir” (BV, BC, BB)
1RU: Mt. Zion “Swingsations”
2RU: Glenwood “Titan Fever”
3RU: Prairie “The Ambassadors”
4RU: Mt. Zion “You’ve Got Male”
5RU: Webb City “Singers”
While choirs from four different states made finals, nobody could grab a major caption away from ATSC, who continued an undefeated season in their third competition of 2023. Mt. Zion comes home second, leading fellow central Illinois group Glenwood, who rounded out the podium. Glenwood, it is also worth noting, grabbed the Best Closer caption, while Westside won the Best Opener and Best Ballad captions. Mt. Zion’s men also turned in a sterling performance, placing above Webb City in finals a week after falling to the MTZ womens group in festival finals at Danville. Prairie loses the choreography caption for the first time all year, but for good reason going up against three of the fnest groups in the Midwest. Webb City keeps the home state of Missouri in finals, and in doing so, they claim southwest Missouri dominance over Marquette, who missed finals and hails from eastern Missouri. In a loaded prep/single-gender division, Mt. Zion took the top two spots, followed by Webb City Bella Voce and Westside Simply Irresistible.
Urbandale Show Choir Invitational
GC: Johnston “Innovation” (BV, BC, BB)
1RU: Mitchell “Friend de Coup”
2RU: Waukee “Millennium”
3RU: Cedar Rapids Kennedy “Happiness, Inc.”
4RU: Omaha South “The Ambassadors”
5RU: Indianola “Side One”
While Johnston may be Shipping Up To Boston in their set this year, they are shipping up to the top of the results so far this year. After taking vocals and choreo at UNL a month ago, they do one better and take vocals, choreo and band here. Mitchell came in as hot trash in their garbage-themed show, and was hot enough to finish in the first runner-up position. Waukee continues to go toe-to-toe with the western Midwest elites, and Olivia Weil picked up her second-straight Best Instrumentalist award. Kennedy now has a trio of fourth-place finishes in four competitions this year, something they should snap at Indianola this weekend, where they enter as the favorite to win. Omaha South continues to be right in the mix in what is potentially one of the toughest schedules to date in all of the land – it seems like they’re on COTW every other week. Indianola scores its first finish lower than third on the year, and they are now an astounding five-for-five on finals berths this year – and it is only midway through February!
Want some more drop-down, drag-out battles between the best show choirs this country has to offer? Check back midweek for a primer on some of the fiercest battles going on next weekend!
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