Twelve high school bands from Utah and surrounding states presented their field shows in the University of Utah's Rice Stadium Saturday evening, pleasing the crowd with colorful maneuvers and an equally colorful variety of music.
In the Western States High School Marching Bands Competition, Mountain Crest from Hyrum in Cache County walked away with first place in the open division. Its sailor-theme program garnered 97.3 points from the judges. American Fork placed second, and Davis High School in Kaysville placed third.In the smaller bands division, Roy High School came out on top. Elko High School from Elko, Nev., was second, and Payson High School was third.
Other trophies went to American Fork's Erik Briggs, David Sowby and Dan Ray as outstanding drum majors and to Mountain Crest for its percussion section, auxiliary unit and winds.
Richard Clarey, director of bands at the U., oversaw the annual competition, with 22 bands entered in preliminaries and 12 selected for the finals.