Sioux City East Wins Best of Show for First Time Since 2009

By Quinn Masek, Siouxland contributor

It was certainly quite the weekend as Best of Show celebrated a quarter-century this weekend. For starters, an alumni choir was arranged and performed right before finals. Then, due to colder weather, Best Of Show added four competing groups and lost one. Sioux City East made a last-minute decision to enter Best Of Show instead of heading to Cameron, Missouri. Spirit Lake, a choir that would've been the sole Iowa representative, dropped out at the last minute. This shakeup made Best Of Show a little more interesting than it was originally looking to be.

Single Gender Division

1st: Sioux City East “Prestige”

2nd: Sioux City East “Entourage”

3rd: Aberdeen Central “Special Request”

Special Request is still looking for a divisional win this season after taking four wins last season. So far, the group hasn’t placed higher than third place. Just like Roosevelt's competition, the top two here are the Sioux City East groups, with Prestige winning the division.

Final Awards

Grand Champion: Sioux City East “The Headliners” (BV/BC/BB)

1st Runner Up: Sioux Falls Roosevelt “Executive Suite”

2nd Runner Up: Aberdeen Central “Eagle Express”

3rd Runner Up: Sioux Falls Jefferson “Legacy”

4th Runner Up: O’Gorman “Ovation”

5th Runner Up: Sioux City East “Prestige”

With Spirit Lake dropping out due to weather, Prestige stepped in to take the last finals spot after winning the single-gender division. This is Prestige's first appearance in finals this year, and it might not be the last. Ovation missed out on finals at Roosevelt's competition but came back and was fifth here. The group's Jacob Thomas also snagged one of the competition's best soloist awards. For the third competition in a row, Legacy landed in fourth place. It's a streak that will likely end soon, as they will likely be among the top three groups at Spirit Lake this upcoming weekend.

Without the last-minute addition of Sioux City East, most people expected Eagle Express to take home gold at this competition. Seeing them in third might feel strange for some people, but this just goes to show how much Executive Suite has improved over the season. This is their first finals appearance this season after missing finals at Jefferson and Gretna, and they took second place here. It’ll be interesting to see if this results pattern holds up at O’Gorman in a few weeks.

The last time The Headliners won at Best of Show was 2009, and the last time they were in attendance being 2011. Now The Headliners are tied with Eagle Express for the group that has won Best Of Show the most times. This is also the first time in program history that Sioux City East has gone to multiple Sioux Falls competitions in one season, although this one was due to potentially unsafe travel conditions.

In a few weeks, the O’Gorman competition will pit a few groups from Best Of Show against each other for another chance at gold in the last Sioux Falls competition of the year. Groups now head into the last stretch of rehearsals to make improvements to their