The Manhattan High School Big Blue Marching Band achieved a score of one, the highest ranking, again this year at the annual Central States Marching Festival held in Manhattan at Bill Snyder Family Stadium on Oct. 14. 

The band competed against 42 other schools at the event. At the festival every school performs with judges watching to evaluate them throughout the festival and will get a ranking after it is all done.

This year at the festival the band performed a medley called “Blue Tour” including “Piano Man” by Billy Joel, “I Get Around” by The Beach Boys, “25 or 6 to 4” by Chicago and “Home Sweet Home” by The Mötley Crüe for their performance.

This is the fifth consecutive year that the Big Blue Marching Band has earned a I rating at a marching festival. 

“We’ve worked hard on our performance all quarter and it was nice to get a I, as a leader of this group,” senior Connor Buchanan said. “It felt amazing hearing our rating. It really shows how all of our work we put in this quarter was worth it and it was just amazing.”