I'm slightly disappointed that Findlay moved down in finals. I was lowkey hoping they could jump Los Al since they were so close in prelims. I'd love to see final scores! But huge congrats to Los Al on the well deserved win!
In summary, the winners in each divisions. Womens; Los Al Soundtrax. Middle School; Petal Spark. Mixed; Los Al Sound FX
Every group this weekend was incredible. Congrats to everyone!
In Finals:
Outstanding Female Performer from Glenwood was Darby Copeland
Outstanding Male Soloist from Los Alamitos was Ale'Handro Brisenoo Tapia
Outstanding Female Soloist from Los Alamitos was Danielle Barren
they were incredible. They should have made finals (not that any groups didn’t deserve not to be in, all were great but Carroll was my parents favorite)
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I do not understand how/why Carroll places so low. Obviously at a competition like this with such amazing groups from all over its gonna be a nail biter, and California Show Choir and Indiana Show Choir are like two totally ball games. Best of luck to all the groups who made finals, it looks like it’s gonna be a close one!
Was this trip worth the 500$ plane ticket… absolutely. If you haven’t gotten the chance to attend this comp as a spectator, do it.
EVERY single group I saw this weekend was spectacular. Every group stepped up their game for finals. Just the amount of talent on show all weekend was so good. I do not envy the judges at all, they had to make some incredibly tough choices.
Los Al - I don’t really have a ton to say about this show/group that hasn’t been said already. Clean choreo, incredible soloists, and outstanding vocals. Watching them live was just an amazing experience that ended with an absolutely deserved GC.
Ankeny Cent - Love love love this show. Ankeny Cent (and Iowa to an extent) represent the best show design in the country in my opinion. Their shows always have these beautiful sets and colors that make it so easy to engage with. The music choices are always creative and not necessarily your “traditional” show choir music. Past that, today was just wonderful. They knew when to take their feet off the gas vocally and it led to some really gorgeous vocal moments and of course, the choreo was so stylistically different than the other groups here. I could type about this show all day.
Loveland - I frankly didn’t know what to expect with Loveland, I had seen videos of their shows and that was about it. They just had sooo much energy and their show felt like it didn’t dip in energy at any single point. They were terrific vocally and were probably one of the best groups I’ve seen in terms of their choreo. So much variety and interesting moments visually, especially the partner sections.
Findlay - Findlay has probably my favorite costuming in all of show choir. The guys number. It’s probably my single favorite song from the day. It genuinely made me laugh out loud at the end. Findlay is just super sound vocally and choreographically. They always sing with great support and space and are just super easy to listen to. Really enjoyed this show, especially their prelims performance.
Petal - This show rocked. Yesterday they accidentally knocked a lighting truss? onto the stage during their ballad and they still performed the ballad without any problems. They also have some super cool choreo and one of my favorite song choices of the day, “Spectrum”, which just blew me away. I think I hummed it for the next 15 minutes. They were super sound vocally and had a super fun theme.
Glenwood - I’ve now seen this group 3 times and each time was as enjoyable as the time before it. Their guys rock. They are so engaged with the show and they look so cool while doing it. The soloist for the ballad was incredible and one of the best solos I’ve ever heard at a competition. Congrats to them on making finals at what is probably the toughest competition in the country is a monumental achievement, especially as small of a group they have.
Other thoughts:
Clinton - This group is for real. I know there is discussion about them every year and who they compete against, but if they had been competing today I think they would have won. They have a mature, rich vocal sound with some of the most clean choreo in the country. The dance break during the song from the Nutcracker? Was so insane to watch. There is a reason this group hasn’t lost in 23 straight competitions.
Los Al girls: I loved this show. If single-gender groups were able to make finals, I think they could have been standing on stage today. If you haven’t seen this group, try to find a way to watch them.
Decatur Middle: This group had the Opry loud. Like the loudest for any group. They had unlimited energy and this was such a fun fun fun show.
This competition was insanely stacked. There was not a single group this weekend that I didn’t enjoy. Again, if you are a fan of show choir, travel to this competition. It’s worth every penny I spent on the trip.
Love seeing Findlay surpass all expectations for this competition. Crazy to see how different judges viewed Glenwood, Carroll, and of course Ankeny in points.
Utley’s scoresheet is fascinating to me. Findlay and Los Al were, in her eyes, 17.5 points clear of the rest of the groups. That’s a significant gap especially by show choir scoring standards. I would also be interested to know Pulver’s criteria as his scoresheet has Los Al lower than every other judge.
I have a theory that Ankeny may have gotten hit with the “curse of the first”. Going so early sometimes judges have a hard time knowing where to set the bar with scores, thus sometimes dropping the first performance more. With a comp like this I know I would have a hard time but I am not yet a professional. This ofc may not be the case at all but it’s just my theory. Tomorrow I believe they will move up in the rankings and who knows what will happen! Obviously I’m not saying this to discredit and or put another group down. All the videos I saw today were phenomenal and all performers should be proud and obviously these judges are top of the line.
I definitely respect your theory, but personally after seeing all of the performances I think it is understandable. While Ankeny is incredible, everyone came to play today. I believe there is tons of room point wise for Ankeny’s performance to grow in finals!
Also after the comp i’m sure i’ll post a wrap up comment of my thoughts. All I have right now is good luck tomorrow choirs
In agreement with Avery here, Ankeny Centennial being 4th was completely understandable based on what we saw today. At the same time, I felt like they have a ton of potential points to get tomorrow and I wouldn’t be surprised to see them jump based on that alone. Felt like they were a little too pumped up vocally, they were much much louder than they were when I saw them in Cedar Rapids.
Again like I said I could be wrong I only saw small bits of each show and thought everyone did great so all I can go on is previous weeks of the shows. Finals is always such a change up so I am very excited to see how things go tomorrow! Seeing the scoring breakdown definitely gives an interesting perspective too since it gives a little look into each judges opinions a little more in depth. Best of luck to each of the remaining groups go kill it tomorrow!
^^ Agreed. Every competition should share scores with the public IMO. I don't even care if they leave off the judges names (although having their names listed is very interesting).. they could just label them Judge 1, Judge 2, etc. if they choose. But I think posting the score breakdown makes results make more sense and provides transparency. Thanks for posting these btw, Ian!
I am confused by Utley’s scoresheet. All of the judges have Ankeny, Loveland, Findlay, and Los Al in their top four while Utley has Ankeney in 7th with Peoria and Glenwood above them, vastly different from the other scorecards. It’s barely consistent with the others… As for Pulvers they may not have a preference for Los Al’s style of show, but they are still very close in points on their scoresheet. I’m guessing things will change in finals now that the judges have gotten a taste, but they are allegedly switching to ranked judging which can yield questionable outcomes if the judges have conflicting consistency/taste.
Fehr - 6/12 (5 of 6 finalists)
Southard - 2/12 (1 of 6 finalists, 5 of 6 finalists in finals)
Gemar - 4/12 (2 of 6 finalists, 4 of 6 finalists in finals)
Pulver - 2/12 (0 of 6 finalists, 4 of 6 finalists in finals)
Utley- 3/12 (3 of 6 finalists, 5 of 6 finalists in finals)
It would seem that Utley is the reason Ankeny is in 4th right now. Every other judge had them out of first by less than ten points, she had them out of first by 32.5 points. Could be the infamous “curse of the first,” and that seems to be the most likely scenario, hopefully. In Fehr Fair Rankings, Ankeny would’ve been in third.
Using the judges ranks, the results look different in prelims. (Remember that prelims uses a Raw score method but I though it would be cool to show the judges ranks)
Rankings using this method would have looked like this:
1st: Los Al
2nd: Findlay
3rd: Loveland
4th: Ankeny
5th: Petal
6th: Glenwood
7th: Peoria
8th: Carroll
9th: Auburn
9th: Kennedy
11th: Decatur
12th: Grenada
Remember once again that prelims was scored using raw scores and not judges ranks but I thought it was cool looking at how the rankings.
