By Michael McHargh, Ohio contributor
The end of February is an odd time in the show choir season, as some groups are just getting started while others have finished their competitive tours. Although it seems like the season just got started, the season has already begun to wrap up after this weekend for groups like Solon, Garfield Heights, and Euclid. Meanwhile, many schools like Edgewood, Grove City, and Loveland have two or three more competitions left. With each week comes more and more stability among the rankings, as many groups have solidified their shows and their places in the ranks.
Large Mixed
Solon “Music in Motion” ( 4 first-place votes, no change)
Marysville “Swingers Unlimited” (NC)
Grove City “Touch of Class” (NC)
Fairfield “Choraliers” (NC)
Loveland “By Request” (NC)
Piqua “The Company” (+1)
Olentangy “Keynotes” (-1)
Beavercreek “Friends” (+1)
ETC “The All Americans” (-1)
Findlay “First Edition” (NC)
News and Notes
Solon ended their season in a huge way. They boast an undefeated season with five vocal captions, four choreography captions, and four band captions. Marysville trails closely behind with four wins, four vocal captions, and four choreography captions. They have solidified themselves at the very top of Ohio and fans can only hope to see them face off in the 2026 season.
Grove City, Fairfield, and Loveland maintain their placements this week after Fairfield beat Loveland at Ross.
Piqua slides into the sixth spot after their clean performance this weekend, where they placed above Findlay, Hamilton, and Marion Harding.
Small Mixed
Edgewood “Choraliers” (3 first-place votes, NC)
Euclid “Varsity Chorale” (+2)
North Royalton “Royal Harmony” (1 first-place vote, +2)
Ross “Legacy” (-2)
Twinsburg “Great Expectations” (-2)
Kenton “Top Twenty”(NC)
Mayfield “Limited Edition” (NC)
Buckeye Valley “Visions” (+1)
Garfield Heights “Music Express” (-1)
Van Buren “The Association” (Not Ranked)
Receiving Votes: Hamilton "Prestige", Ada "Varsity Singers", Medina "Encore Entertainment Company"
News and Notes
Edgewood maintains their spot at the top for the fifth consecutive week while Euclid jumps up again, landing right behind them. This weekend Euclid finished their record-breaking season by winning at Alliance and claiming their programs first ever three-peat.
After a less than ideal showing at Robert C. Byrd, Twinsburg slips down a couple ranks, leaving room for North Royalton and Euclid to jump ahead of them.
Buckeye Valley and Van Buren also had stellar performances at Alliance and shifted their places in the ranking. This is Van Buren’s first season back on the scene since 2019 and they have proven that they are back with a vengeance.
Single-Gender
Grove City (4 first-place votes, NC)
Loveland (+2)
Fairfield (-1)
Marysville (+1)
ETC (-2)
News and Notes
Grove City spends another week on top as the division changes frequently, even from preliminaries to finals performances throughout the season.
Loveland comes back after being behind Marysville in prelims, with both groups making finals and placing over Fairfield.
Looking Ahead
This weekend brings another five competitions into the spotlight for Ohio.
In West Virginia, Portsmouth will travel to Cabell Midland to compete against a collection of West Virginia's mid-tier show choirs.
In Indiana, there are two competitions that feature Groups from Ohio. ETC will travel to Pendleton Heights, just outside of Indianapolis. This will be ETC’s toughest competition yet. The All Americans will face off with an undefeated Center Grove, a tough Fishers, and a handful of other choirs. Rouge will face arguably two of the strongest womens groups in the country in Fishers Sound and the Center Grove Debtones.
Fairfield, Lebanon, Loveland, and Ross will cross the Ohio River and head over to South Dearborn. Since all of these choirs have seen and competed against each other so far this season, this competition will give these groups the opportunity to get back at each other. While Fairfield got the best of Loveland last weekend at Ross, it will be interesting to see how Ross and Lebanon fare against each other after being in separate divisions at Loveland.
Here in Ohio, both Solon and Teays Valley will host two pretty large line-ups featuring over 15 choirs each.
Teays Valley features two sets of finals, Large Mixed featuring the top division and Small Mixed featuring choirs from the remaining mixed high school divisions. Although the leading favorite in large is Grove City, there will be a rematch of Edgewood and Marion Harding from earlier this season. Medium mixed brings together Kenton, Hamilton, North Royalton and Strongsville. North Royalton presumably leads the division after their win at Kenton. Small mixed features Ada, Alliance and the competition's only out-of-state visitor, Poca, from West Virginia. Both Ohio groups will need solid, captivating performances as Poca has been on a tear in West Virginia and pose a great threat for every group eligible for Small Mixed Finals. Extra-small mixed brings a rematch between Central Crossing and Milton-Union with River Valley joining in to claim the top spot. The Single-Gender division features Ohio’s only all-boy choir, Singers Xtreme from Marion Harding, and an on-fire Class Act from Grove City. If Single-Gender groups are eligible for finals, Class Act poses a major threat to every mixed choir in attendance.
The largest event for Ohio this weekend is definitely Solon. With this competition featuring so many mid-ranked groups from both the Large and Small Mixed divisions, this event will be one of the closest races of the season. The Large Mixed division features two main bouts. Aiming for spots on the podium are Beavercreek, Findlay, Piqua, and Olentangy. The only group here with at least one win is Piqua, albeit over a tiny field of small mixed choirs. Although neither Beavercreek, Findlay nor Olentangy have pulled off any wins this season, They have been consistent finalists and improved with every week of competition. Twinsburg and Mayfield round out the division, hoping to impress the judges and make the finals round.
The Small Mixed division is just a dense battle between Elgin, Medina, Perrysburg, Van Buren, Walsh Jesuit, and Norwell from Indiana. While this division alone will be a tough fight, these groups will also be looking to upset any group that leaves any margin for error in making finals. The womens division brings together Olentangy and Twinsburg for the first time since 2018, as well as Norwell, for a small but mighty division. Olentangy is the favorite of the three and also poses a threat to many of the mixed groups looking to make finals.
Although March brings the end of the season for a handful of show choirs, the competition field is still extremely active with tremendous battles still to come.
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