Gianna Honcharuk

Staff Writer

Prospect’s band got first place in their class (5A) and second place overall out of 35 bands at their competition at Illinois State University this past Saturday.

They qualified to finals, along with 13 other teams and had two strong performances.

They came close behind Marian Catholic, only down by .15 points. This was quite an achievement for the band, considering Marian Catholic is one of the best bands in the country.

Marian Catholic has qualified for B.O.A. (Bands Of America) Grand Nationals every year the competition has been around. They’ve won it multiple times, so Prospect wasn’t expecting to win this competition but went there ready to give it their best.

“At the beginning of our show we could’ve started off stronger,” said Philip Masini, a senior tuba player for the band, “We definitely got better as the show went on but we could’ve started off stronger.”

“It seemed like people were really excited the whole day, which sometimes on competition days isn’t really the case,” Masini said, considering they have to be at Prospect at five in the morning for these competitions.

There was a lot of energy throughout the day, compared to the usual drowsiness that takes place before they perform.

“I think we had a really great show yesterday, because we had really great warm-ups and rehearsals, and our shows really reflected that,” said Sammie Smolenski, a senior on color guard.

Yesterday the team realized how important it was to focus on their warm-ups, and in doing that they placed very high in the competition.

“We don’t really expect rewards, we really just try to work our best,” Smolenski said and they tend to be happy with their results at the end of their competitions. They were all nervous heading into finals, but it was also exciting for them getting so far in the competition.