Winter guard captures state

The ‘crow’ flies home with first state championship

All senior Alyssa Chrisman remembers is tears.

“I couldn’t stop crying,” Chrisman said. “I was in shock.”

That shock quickly turned to jubilation as Chrisman and her teammates celebrated the school’s first Winter Guard state title Saturday night at Center Grove.

“We just had an amazing staff who pushed us to do great things,” Chrisman said.

For the first time in school history, the Winter Guard captured the state championsip in the Open Division Saturday night at Center Grove High School. Chrisman credits co-directors Brayton Mendenhall and Todd Hinton as well as Greg Hagen with the groups success.

“They got us trying harder each practice and striving to be the best,” said Chrisman, who is in her third year on guard. “It was an amazing season.”

Performing a show titlted “What Were the Crows After,” the guard performed at 6:33 p.m. this past Saturday and earned its state championship when awards were announced at 8 p.m. The show reflects the aggressive nature of birds of prey and contains excerpts from Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds and Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven.”

Winter Guard concludes its season April 3-5 in Dayton, Ohio for the finals of WGI (Winter Guard International).

“I am very proud of their competitive edge this year,” Mendenhall said.

In other competition over the weekend, the winter percussion A team finished fifth in state and the World Group finished third. The Sounds competition choir also finished fifth in state.