Choirs make state, guard falls short

Jay County High School’s show choirs are headed to state.

The color guard came up just a bit short.

Thanks to a strong effort in their final regular-season competition Saturday at the Columbia City Cup 2023, Jay County’s Patriot Edition and Just Treble earned spots in the Indiana State School Music Association Small School State Finals.

The school’s winter guard barely missed a second consecutive state berth as it finished 18th in the Indiana High School Color Guard Association semifinals Saturday at Franklin Central. (The top 16 advance to the state finals Saturday at Center Grove.)

Just Treble, the JCHS all-girl group, closed out its run to the state finals by finishing second in women’s division – tier II on Saturday. It finished behind Starlights of Northridge.

Patriot Edition placed fifth in the co-ed division at Columbia City and also won the award for best crew.

The JCHS winter guard scored 72.59 points Saturday in the state semifinals. That was up from its 70.16 at the previous weekend’s state preliminaries but left the group 1.36 points short of a state berth.

Pike picked up the final spot in the state finals with a score of 73.95, and Tipton was 17th with 72.62.

State finals berths for the show choirs are determined by scores from across all ISSMA qualifying competitions through the season, with the top nine advancing.

Joining Just Treble in the women’s division at the small school state finals — they will be held Saturday at Franklin Central — will be groups from beech Grove, East Noble, Fairfield, New Palestine, Pendleton Heights, Columbia City, Huntington North and Northridge. In the mixed division, Patriot Edition will be up against Pendleton Heights, Roncalli, Beech Grove, Huntington North, New Castle, New Palestine, Northridge and Columbia City.

Just Treble has finished in the top two in each of its last three competitions, including a win March 4 at East Noble Knight Edition. It was second at Bishop Luers Midwest Show Choir Invitational, also on March 4, and at Columbia City.

Patriot Edition has been in the top three four times, including first place at East Noble. It was second in the season-opening Carroll Classic and the Homestead Classic Showcase on Feb. 18, and finished third and Bishop Luers.

Just Treble was fourth at the ISSMA state finals last season while Patriot Edition finished sixth.