D’Evelyn High School, of Denver, won the Class 2A title with a final score of 77.50 points. The M-CHS marching band came in second with 75.05 points, followed by The Classical Academy, of Colorado Springs, with 72.90 points. Englewood High School finished fourth with 71.50 points.
Earlier Monday, the Panthers marching band qualified for the final round with a second-place performance at 11:45 a.m. in semifinal competition at Ralph Stocker Stadium in Grand Junction along with seven other class 2A bands. The bands with the top four scores from semifinals advance to the finals on Monday evening.
The Panthers marching band moved up two places from the 2015 finals, when it finished fourth behind champion D’Evelyn, Englewood and The Classical Academy.
M-CHS entered the state competition ranked second after scoring a 64.20 at the West Slope Regional Competition last weekend.
The competition Monday capped off a busy weekend for the band. They traveled to the Bands of America regional competition in St. George, Utah on Saturday, and with a score of 62.85, the band was the top class 1A group. They placed 17 out of 24 bands in all classes, but did not reach the finals, which are reserved for the top 10 overall bands.
At the Red Rocks Marching Festival on Friday, also in St. George, the group placed fourth out of 14 bands in the class, according to the M-CHS Facebook page. There was only .2 between M-CHS and the third-place band, and only 1.5 points separated the top four bands.
The theme for the band’s competition show this year is “The Witch and the Saint,” featuring original music by composer Steven Reineke. It has a good vs. evil theme and includes four movements — “Sisters,” “Sibylla’s Theme,” “Helena’s Theme” and “Finale.”
The band also competed on Sept. 24 at the Colorado West Music Fest in Grand Junction, and took the top prize in the 2A class, Ritthaler said. The band had the fifth-highest score overall at the show among the 14 bands in all classes, according to Director Rodney Ritthaler.