Shining finish

There were no dark clouds left hovering over the Marching Patriots.

Instead, they again showed their true colors as one of the top track bands in the state.

Jay County High School placed third for the fourth consecutive year at Friday’s Indiana State Fair Band Day competition and earned the Class AAA percussion caption award.

Anderson, the runner-up a year ago, took over the top spot with a score of 92.15, winning its seventh state fair title overall and first since 2010. Kokomo followed with 91.925 points.

Back-to-back champion Noblesville did not take part in the state fair contest this year.

There was a gap of more than three points between the top two bands and the trio that battled for third place. Jay County won that tight competition by just 0.138 points as it totaled 88.438 to take the No. 3 spot ahead of fourth-place Centerville (88.3) and fifth-place Northeastern (88.113).

“We’ll take it,” said Smeltzer. “I thought the kids had a pretty good run tonight. It was at least consistent with today.

“I thought the music was really strong tonight. … The intensity level was really strong tonight. I thought our kids took it up a notch.”

The Marching Patriots got to celebrate as late afternoon turned to early evening when they were announced as winners of the percussion caption award.

“It’s really a hard feeling to describe,” said senior snare drummer Gavin Billington, calling the experience surreal. “It always felt impossible to me. … I can’t believe we did it.”

Jay County last won the percussion caption award in 2015.

This year’s group has a wide range of experience, from seniors like Billington to incoming seventh grader Gabe Pinkerton. In all, the Marching Patriots’ percussion section has five middle schoolers.

The key, percussion staffer Mitch Snyder said, is that the group came together as one.

“We all work for the common good,” he said, noting that he felt the younger members benefitted from spending the summer learning with and from the veterans. “It’s a unity. It’s togetherness. It’s a family that they’ve built.”

Jay County came up just short of winning a second caption award, as it finished second in Class AAA to Anderson in the music category. Anderson also won for general effect, with Kokomo taking the honor for visuals and Northeastern for auxiliary.

Centerville and Monroe Central both won music, visual, general effect and percussion in Class AA and Class A, respectively. Auxiliary honors went to Mooresville in Class AA and Frankton in Class A.

Evening results held true from the afternoon, when Anderson, Kokomo and Jay County were the top three in Class AAA and overall.

“I thought that it was a really solid run,” said “super senior” mellophone player Molly Ault. “In the past couple days in practice we’ve really kicked it into high gear. … I really think it paid off today. It felt really good.”

“It was really good,” added drum major Cameron Weimert. “I feel like there was a lot of energy that we put into our show. It finally all came out.”

The summer has had its clouds and sunshine for the Marching Patriots.

They opened lower than they had hoped with a fourth-place finish at the Archway Classic at Centerville before bouncing back to place second at both the Jay County Lions and Spirit of Sound (Muncie) contests. After a week of band camp, they dipped to fifth place a week ago at The Drums at Winchester.

While the “down” moments aren’t enjoyable at the moment, they can serve a purpose, Billington said.

“I feel like that ‘down’ is a tool,” he said. “I think that ‘down’ is your biggest motivator because that ‘down’ pushes you. It makes you want to be better. it makes you hungry. It makes you want to have that performance even more than you did before.

“This week, we pushed way harder, and we got right back up to it again. That’s just kind of how it’s been thus far. It’s been up and down. But I’m glad that we’re up.”

Smeltzer agreed with that assessment of the afternoon show, saying he was pleased with his band’s focus following a strong rehearsal Thursday evening. There were still some marching moments that could be improved, he added, but he felt both Joey Littler’s flugelhorn solo paired with the sword duet by Isaiah Weekley and Dallas Negele and the “True Colors” moment late in the show hit their marks.

“I thought it went pretty well today,” he told his band a few minutes later before releasing them to explore the Indiana State Fairgrounds. “Moments hit. I would have loved to have been there in the crowd to hear that because I think that was magical, I really do. You guys went for it.”