Show choir competitions call for early mornings and long nights of hard work and practice. This weekend they have paid off for both show choir groups, Innovation, the varsity choir and Synergy, the junior varsity choir. In the competition, Innovation placed third and Synergy placed fourth.

Going into the competition, Synergy member Zach Walker knew that their group would have a good chance in the competition to be successful.

“We were going up against Ankeny, who have beaten us before this season so during daytime we really wanted to beat them,” Walker said. “We also knew that we had the chance to make it to finals if we (did) really well, so there was a lot of pressure.”

Synergy received awards such as first place in the daytime show, best vocals, best choreography, and the people’s choice award. For the people’s choice award, audience members donate money to their favorite choir, and the choir that has the most money receives the award. Innovation, the varsity choir placed second in the daytime show.

Innovation member Stephanie Graham knew that for the last competition of the season, they needed to perform their absolute best.

“I thought that we would do pretty well, but I knew that no matter what, it was our last competition so we had to give it our all and just leave it all out there and show them how far we’ve come this season,” Graham said.

The daytime competition took place between all of the choirs, and then the top six continued on to the finals, which is the night competition. It is very rare that the junior varsity choir beat varsity and both make finals, and have to compete against each other. The finals took place in Marion, Iowa on Saturday, March 1 at 7:00 p.m.

“I know I speak not only for myself, but for the rest of Innovation, that final performance for us was the best we’ve performed all year,” Graham said. “We definitely reached our full potential and I couldn’t be more proud.”

Not only was it a proud moment for Innovation, but for Synergy as well.

“After finals it was an incredible moment because we gave it our all and left it all out on the stage,” Walker said. “It was the final time we will ever perform as a group ever again so it was a very emotional performance for us too.”