DAYTON, Oh. – This past weekend, the Lowndes High School Varsity Winter Guard traveled to Dayton, Ohio to compete in the Winter Guard International World Championships competition.
This marked their first appearance at World Championships in the short 6 year history of the program. After 3 days of competition against 130
groups, the Lowndes High School “Show Ponies” not only made finals (top 24), they finished 8th in the world with a score of 91.785.
They were adjudicated by 10 judges from across the country giving scores in the captions of equipment, movement, design, and effect.
The Lowndes Winter Guard director, Kelly Ross, stated “With this being our first year in the National class, and our first appearance at World championships, we
really didn’t know what to expect. There are numerous groups who have been competing at championships for years, so you try to keep it all in perspective. To not only make it into finals in our first year, but finish 8th out of 130 other groups is surreal.”
This strong 8th place finish comes a week after the guard was named the Scholastic Silver Medalist in the state of Florida.
“This is a huge step for our program,” added Director of Bands Jon Bowman. “When this program was started six years ago we had a plan to get to Dayton and World Championships. It is awesome to see it become a reality and to finish where we did it’s truly amazing.”
Bowman also stated that this could have not been accomplished without the support of Leanne McCall, Principal of Lowndes High and Wes Taylor, Superintendent of Lowndes County School.
“Their support for the vision of our program is unwavering.”
WGI Sport of the Arts is the world’s premier organization producing indoor color guard, percussion, and wind ensemble competitions. As a non-profit youth organization, WGI serves as the leading governing body of the indoor winter guard, percussion and winds activities. It is called the Sport of the Arts because it brings music to life through performance in a competitive format. Now entering its 39th year in 2016, the sport continues to evolve and grow.
The Lowndes High School Winter Guard staff includes, Kelly Ross (Director and Designer), Sarah Merriman (Instructor), Hannah Banbury (Instructor), Travis Wingate (Designer), Sarah Arnett (Choreographer and Consultant) and Andy Snow (Designer and Choreographer).
