Comps of the Week: 1/31/26

By William Soquet, Editor-in-Chief

A consistently deep field gathers in the Cornhusker capitol, two national powers reprise last year’s meeting a bit earlier in the season, several quality choirs make their way to Sioux Falls, the Minnesota season starts at Bloomington Kennedy, and a late addition makes Ankeny Centennial a sleeper field to watch.

Lincoln East Spartan Spectacular

The Lineup (groups from Nebraska unless noted)

Mixed: Grand Island “Ultimate Image”, Gretna East “Equinox”, Jenks “Trojanaires” (OK), Lincoln Southwest “Resonance”, Millard South “South on Stage”, Millard West “West in the Groove”, Norris “Gold”, Standing Bear “The Renegades”

Single-Gender: Grand Island “Sweet Revelation”, Jenks “AireMen” (OK), Jenks “Trojan Spirit” (OK), Millard South “Stage One”, Millard West “Uptown”, Norris “Titanaires”

Prep: Grand Island “Future Image”, Lincoln Southwest “Ambience”, Lincoln Southwest “Emergence”, Millard West “Swing Cats”, Norris “68^th Street Singers”

The unstoppable force that is Gretna East meets the immovable object that is Millard West. After bursting into the national conversation in 2025, Equinox is backing that up this season, scoring a big win at Gretna over Millard North, Westside and Papio South. Millard West has not competed yet this season, but WIG still sits in the top spot in HomeRoom’s Nebraska poll rankings this week due to the strength of their 2025 outings and the anticipated strength of their 2026 production. Last season, Equinox took a vocals-only win at Omaha North while WIG took multiple choreo/band wins, tracing a potential caption split at the Spartan Spectacular. A week after sweeping just across town at Standing Bear, Lincoln Southwest will look to hold serve against a large cast of other contending choirs. Jenks had an impressively versatile season in 2025, taking choreography off Neosho, winning at LD Bell, and making finals in Indiana. They enter this competition as a true wild card. Norris, Millard South and Grand Island all enter this competition with solid finals placements on their resume so far this season, but no direct matchups between each other. Whoever nails their prelims run and sets themselves up for finals will take a big step forward for the rest of the season. Standing Bear has made finals at all six events it has competed at since its genesis; that streak is likely ending at Lincoln East, but The Renegades could take another big step forward and make their way to the evening round.

Olentangy Keynote Classic

The Lineup (groups from Ohio unless noted)

Large Mixed: Center Grove “Sound System” (IN), Fairfield “Choraliers”, Loveland “By Request”, Marysville “Swingers Unlimited”, Twinsburg “Great Expectations”

Small Mixed: Bishop Luers “Minstrels”, Martinsburg “Good Times” (WV), Teays Valley “Prominent Rendition”, Whitehall-Yearling “Music Unlimited”

Womens: Center Grove “Debtones” (IN), Fairfield “Pure Elegance”, Loveland “Allure”, Martinsburg “GLITZ” (WV), Marysville “Swingers Select”

The last time Center Grove and Marysville met was at Fairfield last year, which resulted in Sound System taking the win with Best Show Design, Zionsville taking second with Best Vocals and Best Band, and Marysville taking third with Best Choreography. Will the results change with an early-season matchup in 2026? Both groups are competing for the first time this season, and there are wildcards in the field again. Loveland revved up their season with a podium finish at Beavercreek on Jan. 17, and Fairfield had a vintage three-win 2025 season that showed they are still capable of doing a lot of damage at competitions. Additionally, the Choraliers will compete four times this season, down from five last year, so the group will want to make the most of each time out on stage. The Keynote Classic will take five mixed finalists, and who that fifth will be is anyone’s guess. Twinsburg is under the new direction of Rebecca Sabree, Martinsburg was an overall competition winner last year, and Teays Valley is a late add on the schedule after last weekend’s weather shenanigans.

Sioux Falls Roosevelt Executive Showcase

The Lineup (groups from South Dakota unless noted)

Large Mixed: Aberdeen Central “Eagle Express”, Bellevue West “West Connection” (NE), Fort Worth Southwest “Southwest Effect” (TX), Harrisburg “Eclipse”, Hastings “UNCAGED” (NE), O’Gorman “Ovation!”, Sioux Falls Jefferson “Legacy”, Sioux Falls Washington “Classic Connection”

Small Mixed: Denison “Singing Ambassadors” (IA), Fullerton “8^th and Broadway” (NE), Sioux Center “Satisfaction” (IA), Vermillion “Rhythm in Red”, Woodbine “Visual Harmonics” (IA)

Womens: Aberdeen Central “Special Request”, Fort Worth Southwest “Sound Machine” (TX), Hastings “UNTAMED” (NE), Sioux Falls Jefferson “Revelry”, Sioux Falls Washington “Stage Lights”

This is one of the more chaotic lineups that South Dakota will see this season, with groups from four different states converging on the Executive Showcase. Several of these groups have already seen good success so far this season, making this matchup all the more intriguing. Aberdeen Central nabbed second at Sioux Falls Jefferson on Jan. 10 but hasn’t competed since. Sioux Falls Washington was third at Jefferson before missing finals at Linn-Mar. Sioux Falls Jefferson has a fourth and fifth under its belt this season in loaded Iowa and Nebraska contests. O’Gorman missed finals at Jefferson but then executed a sweep win at a smaller Omaha Burke contest. Hastings and Sioux Center were incredibly close at the Glenwood Gala, with UNCAGED taking the win with Best Band and Satisfaction taking second with Best Vocals and Best Choreography. Bellevue West was third at Lincoln Links. Fort Worth Southwest has not debuted yet for the season but is now under the leadership of Justin Redmond and Kimberly McConnell. There are just so many different ways that this competition could go or even potential combinations of finals groups that the heat will be on from small mixed in the morning all the way through to the final awards.

Wildcard: Bloomington Kennedy Gold

The Lineup (groups from Minnesota unless noted)

Mixed: Bemidji “Vocalmotive”, Bloomington Jefferson “Jefferson Connection”, Eau Claire Memorial “Old Abe Show Choir” (WI), Hastings “Riverside Company”, North St. Paul “Northern Lights”, Sparta “Upstage Adrenaline” (WI), Totino-Grace “Company of Singers”, Waconia “Power Company”

Womens: Bemidji “La Voce Ballo”, Bloomington Jefferson “JIVE”, Hastings “Dynamic Edition”, Sparta “Rise of Adrenaline” (WI), Totino-Grace “Encore Singers”, Waconia “The Current”

Mens: Totino-Grace “T-Tones”

Expanded Coverage: Bloomington Kennedy Gold Kicks off Minnesota Season in Earnest

The 2026 edition of Gold sets up like several others in the past few years: gather most of the state’s power players and throw in an out-of-state wildcard or two to spice things up. The difference this year is that no single group has the dominant resume so far this season to declare them a clear favorite beforehand. Hastings is the defending champion; their only result so far this season is fourth at Linn-Mar on Jan. 17, two weeks ago. Waconia is the returning runner-up; both of their results this season have been second to De Pere Jam Session. Sparta is taking the role of “out-of-state challenger” this season; Upstage started the season off by beating Onalaska at Holmen but was fourth at the Onalaska Classic. Bemidji is the returning fifth-place choir and will be making their debut for the season; Vocalmotive should grow in season three of Gunnar Aas’ tenure as director. Bloomington Jefferson rounded out the finals field in 2025; they are in good position to do so again this year, having a win last weekend at Altoona as a nice feather in their cap. North St. Paul and Eau Claire Memorial are each coming off finals berths of their own last weekend, but it will be a challenge for either ensemble to crack into the established finals contenders.

Editor’s Choice: Ankeny Centennial Mid-Iowa Show Choir Championships

The Lineup (groups from Iowa unless noted)

Mixed: Ankeny “Visual Adrenaline”, Blue Valley “Chamber Singers” (KS), Dowling Catholic “Dimensions”, La Crosse “River City Revolution” (WI), North Polk “Nexus”, Papillion-La Vista South “Titan Radiance” (NE), Papillion-La Vista South “Titanium” (NE), Southeast Polk “RAMification”, Van Meter “Vocal Loco-Motion”, Waukee Northwest “Eos”

Womens: Papillion-La Vista South “Revolution” (NE), Southeast Polk “Vocal Gold”, Van Meter “Sparkline Express”

Prep: Ankeny “Intensity”, Ankeny “Perpetual Motion”, Papillion-La Vista South “Titan Express” (NE), Waukee Northwest “Aurora”

Sometimes there’s a competition that’s so good that it needs to make the cut, even if it wasn’t voted as the wildcard. This year’s Mid-Iowa Championships is one of those competitions. Both Ankeny and Waukee Northwest have commanding wins on their resume so far this season, and it will be a true battle of titans to see which program will come out on top. Blue Valley was a late add into this one after the cancellation of the Chillicothe Chilli Grooves Festival last weekend, but Chamber Singers continue to get better year after year and BV has the potential to play spoiler in a pretty serious way here. Two more out-of-state contenders are Papio South and La Crosse; Titanium has a second and fourth to its name so far this season and RCR has a sweep over El Paso and a split-caption win over Bloomington Kennedy to its name. Southeast Polk was fifth in a loaded Waukee Starstruck event two weekends ago and should not be counted out as a contender either. Also of note, Papio South is pulling their top girls group up to the open division, so Titan Radiance definitely looks sporty at this stage of the game as well.

With five great competitions going on across the country, there are bound to be stuff and things that happen. Comps of the Week Recap will cover them all, posted early next week on the blog.