This comp has a lot of great show choirs from all around the country coming! I think Carmel finally getting out of the central Indiana realm will catch up to them, and their win streak of 6 will come to an end. After seeing Brio in person and watching Carmel and Marysville on YouTube, I'm fairly confident it'll go this way, but I might be wrong. Carmel's consistency is usually great, but I really think the underdog will take it this year. If they were to take a caption, It'd probably be BC from Marysville.
I am from Chesterton and help run the stage area. I am so blessed to once again see some of best show choir in the country!!!! GOOD LUCK to everyone and have a FUN day
4 groups in the large mixed division here (Brandon, Carmel, Marysville, and Wheaton North) have all won at least one competition already this year. I do think Carmel will be the hardest to beat, but anything can happen!
Some context for how competitive this contest looks to be (in pre-season for many of these groups)...
Carmel went undefeated last year. Their last loss came to Center Grove at HOA Orlando in 2022. They haven't placed third or lower since 2019 at Olentangy, losing to Fairfield and (oddly enough) their own women's group.
Marysville has been a strong contender both nationally and in Ohio for the last several years. Last year, the only groups to defeat them were Findlay, Los Alamitos, and Ross. They have not placed third or lower since 2019 at Fairfield, losing to Burbank and Loveland, but taking the caption for Best Show Design.
Wheaton North has become one of the top groups in Illinois in recent years as Wheaton Warrenville South, Waubonsie Valley, and Glenwood have all had major director changes (John Burlace, Mark Myers, and Jeff Gemar respectively). They have defeated all three of these groups in recent years, but only a handful of notable out-of-state choirs (Homewood and Troy Buchanan).
Brandon is a new powerhouse in the Southern circuit, and last year swept Wheaton South and took two captions from Center Grove, one of two groups to defeat them last season. At that same contest, they beat Westside and Mitchell. There is no publicly available information on how close they really were to beating Center Grove. So far, they have not beaten any of the other three powerhouses in the South (Petal, Homewood, and Clinton), but that may change before this contest.
Four groups that aren't used to placing lower than second. Two will do that for their first time in a while. This will be interesting.
I think I agree with these predictions. One of the things I love about Brandon is that they aren't scared to compete. They regularly travel and compete against some of the best groups in the country every year. This season, they have to face Carmel AND Clinton on back-to-back weekends in February, and even if they don't win, competing against the best only makes you better. Best of luck to all of Brandon's groups here!
Looks like another stacked competition. Interesting to note that Brandon's mixed and treble groups went up against Center Grove at HOA Nashville last year. While both of Center Grove's choirs came out on top, I believe the final scores were very close. It'll be cool to see Brandon competing with other midwest powerhouses.
Judges Are:
John Burlace (scoring)
Shane Coe (scoring)
Eric Hayes (scoring)
Marty Lindvahl (scoring)
Connie Mulligan (scoring)
Marah Cover (critique)
Ellie Jordan (critique)
Jeff Jordan (solo comp)
Brandon, Carmel, Marysville, and Wheaton North are some of the best dancing groups in the country, and I'd say all 4 are easily in the top 20 overall groups in the country. None of them finished lower than 1st runner-up last season, and I'm already super interested in seeing how they stack up against each other here.
