Davenport North's Jared Defauw won Best Male Soloist and Janesville Craig's Lexi Ganong won Best Female Soloist. Sounds like the Best Band caption is still being sorted out, as several groups had an adult pianist, making them ineligible for Best Band at this contest. Sounds like it was a great day that showcased a lot of talent! Congrats to everyone!
Altoona Locomotion scored highest today in band! We would've taken home the best combo award, but we had one adult playing in the band today. Not trying to steal anyones thunder. Just a lot of hard working band members that deserve credit!
How does the tier system work in terms of finals? I don't understand it.
Depends on the competition rules. I would assume the mixed tiers (Tier I-Tier III/"4A-2A") are all eligible for finals. Prep groups are probably eligible too. Usually it's just the highest daytime scores advance to finals.
The Tier system is just a way to standardize all the different show choir divisions/classifications that are used across the country. For example, y'all in Wisconsin use "Open Class" (Tier I) and "Class A" (Tier II). Iowa doesn't. Every place does it differently.
The schedule that Adam posted has changed a bit. The most up-to-date version is posted above. If there are any other changes between now and then, just let us know!