lost

PSJA was outstanding. Love to see a program from the valley succeeding. I remember seeing PSJA North at state in 2018 I believe? Really good stuff from the schools in that area.

Now there’s a show you want to be taking to nationals. The Woodlands is a class act as always.

The top view from Vista Ridge is amazing. If they clean up some of those dirtier moments those formations are going to net some really nice VGE points.

We are three seasons now where people forget about Vista Ridge and then they show up at the end of the season and just kill it.

I think Keller was over the shot clock by a few seconds in prelims one or two years ago. Didn’t really affect them. Not sure.

Right now I have Wakeland above Rouse, but honestly it’s a tight race. And if history has shown anything it’s that Cedar Park are the kings of leaving it all on the field for 5A finals. I’m not counting them out yet.

Reagan’s show theme gives the benefit of the doubt to some of the “cleanliness” issues as they seem to be intentional design choices. I think they’re pretty solidly a finalist but I’m having a hard time as an untrained judge seeing how the judges will choose to interpret their show altogether.

I love Cypress Falls but I have to agree. Man that program was on the ups only a few years ago, San Antonio finals and promising placements. Really scratching my head to what happened.

Probably this

Can you cut it out, you're creating a very bad impression for your program.

I disagree with this analysis handily but it’s always good to have some healthy disagreement. Churchill is a great band and I wish them luck in their future, I just think that in the present McNeil has the margin by a good hand.

Impressive finish from Hutto. This is such a tough area because there aren’t really any “filler” finals groups, they’re all fighting immensely hard (and have a realistic shot) at taking one of those state spots. With Dripping Springs move up to 6A, the opening of M&G Johnson and the rapid improvement of McNeil this area seems to have the highest jump in difficulty in recent years. Not to mention the consistent fights bands like Churchill and Weiss put up to secure a spot in finals.

That may be exactly the slot Dripping Springs needs to make it into state finals…

"Best option" for who? Western and Southern Texan bands deserve an adequate representation regardless of their competitive success, discounting them here and calling it the "best option" feels super gross.

I I don't think Clear Brook comes close to DS and Wylie but it'll be a fun contest.

I honestly think Dripping Springs takes this one.

While their show may not click by tonight I do think they have it in them to clean to national finals in the coming weeks.

Real nail biter

This seems fair. I think there's a world Lake Travis upsets Vista Ridge given how things have been shaking up. This area is always so unpredictable, but again everything seems to settle by the time San Antonio comes around.

7A will happen eventually...maybe not for a long while but with the growth of Texas eventually it will happen.

I think this is the show that takes Georgetown to state though.

Hays did start off pretty slowly this year, losing to two bands that arguably should've been easy work for them with full respect.

Oh awesome. Was scared we’d miss out on one of these bands at state. I agree the top four placing bands are kind of already locked, but honestly they could finish in any order. They all end up settling into their appropriate tiers by San Antonio anyway. We’ve seen Westlake beat Leander in 2018 here, and Vista Ridge beat Vandegrift in 2021 and then again the eventual state champion in 2022 so really anything goes.

Are they taking 3 or 4?

It’s about the evolution of policy. These timing penalties keeping strong bands out has been brewing for a few years. Most notably Roma a potential finalist was kept out of state in 2019.