The marching band received an overall score of one in addition to receiving ones in all categories – music, marching, general effect, drumline and colorguard – at the Central States Marching Festival Saturday, Oct. 14. The band’s hard work since their last competition, the Emporia State Marching Festival, paid off in receiving this score.

Junior Kaitlyn Fitzpatrick, who is on the color guard, explains that although the band did really well, members are often nervous while performing because they are so attuned to the little mistakes.

“I think it went pretty well,” Fitzpatrick said. “I felt, on the field, that we didn’t do very good because that is what it is typically like on the field. You notice all your little mistakes and your missteps, but then you get off the field and you’re like, “oh, maybe that wasn’t so bad,” and then we actually got a really high score.”

Brass section leader senior Georgia Hansen shared Fitzpatrick’s opinion, saying that after watching footage of their performance, students felt better about their potential ratings. In addition to the overall performance, Hansen also thought her solo was very successful.

“Leading up to the solo, of course, I was pretty nervous,” Hansen said. “[However, once I was] on the field, it sounded really amazing with the echo. It sounded very ethereal [and] magical.”

Hansen was one of three soloists, along with juniors Joah Clark and Carson Reynolds. Aside from soloists, the five members of the color guard were also able to shine, getting their first superior one rating since the pandemic. Fitzpatrick reflects on how she felt hearing the score and why she thinks they were able to score so well.

“I was so excited, especially hearing that color guard had gotten a one because we hadn’t gotten a one in a really long time as a guard,” Fitzpatrick said. “We really worked on getting synchronized and making sure everyone was timed really well because those are two huge points when it comes to marching band. We really drilled those in between [Emporia and K-State].”

Drum major and sophomore Ian Weatherman shared Fitzpatrick’s opinion, saying the band made many improvements that really made a difference.

“A lot of the time between Emporia and our competition at K-State was just cleaning up those small sections – getting everybody in the right place, knowing exactly where to be – to make the sets work as clean as possible,” Weatherman said. “Cleaning it up musically, making sure everything sounds solid and onpoint and matching up the music [were all things we improved].”

Hansen agreed, explaining that the band focused on the slower, more precise parts of their performance during class to improve. Furthermore, she thought the band was more motivated to improve than ever because they made some simple mistakes at Emporia.

“We were super productive in those two weeks because we felt like we didn’t do as good as we could have,” Hansen said. “I think there was a lot of individual responsibility that was being taken and people realized that if we wanted to do really good at K-State, we’ve got to put in a lot of work. So we did that.”

With this performance marking the end of marching competitions, Hansen is looking forward to making the show entertaining when performing at football games.

“Overall, we’re just going to work on cleaning up the little things and making the show more fun to watch as a spectator,” Hansen said.