The Macomb High School Marching Bomber Band won awards at two competitions on Saturday, October 20, including winning the Dale F. Hopper Small School Division Grand Champion Award at the Western Illinois University Marching Band Classic. The band’s marathon day started with a bus ride to Normal at 3 a.m. for the Illinois State University Marching Band Championships and finished on cold, windy Hanson Field at 9:30 p.m.

The day began and ended in triumph as the band first won the award in their class for Outstanding Musical Performance at Illinois State. At WIU, the band won first place for class 2A and was named the Grand Champion for classes 1A and 2A. In addition, the band swept the caption awards in class 2A, including Best Winds/Instruments, Best Percussion, Best Auxilary/ Color Guard and Best Drum Majors.

Section Leaders are Sasha Grigortsuk, Breanna Rhoads, Lily Mansfield, Kerem Tasdan, Carter Benson, Anabelle Clark, Hannah Murray, Clara Barclay, Megan Redding, Madeline Weiss, Marc Musser, Rachel Bosworth, Joe Burkholder, Ben Walker, Richard Engel, Leslie Eutsler, Addison Fowler, and Lily Dunsworth.