PAGE – Page High School’s Winterguard team brought home three big awards from this year’s state competition.

The team was awarded a Superior – the Winterguard equivalent of taking first place – and two of its members were also awarded Superiors for their individual performances.

Arabell and Anna Grimshaw, who are sisters, each earned Superiors in the solo and small group category.

Because of coronavirus restrictions, Page High School’s Winterguard team gave only virtual performances this year. The team’s performances were recorded and sent to judges. The judges would watch and rate performances from Winterguard teams from around the state, then post the scores a few days later.

“It was a surreal experience competing virtually for an entire season,” Winterguard Instructor Crystal Codner said. “It took a lot of extra determination to stay motivated.”

During much of the season, the team members practiced their routine on their own, then later incorporate it all into a cohesive group performance.

“Everyone was forced to really learn their own part,” Codner said. “We had so many pieces this year and putting them all together takes a while for it to become rote. And that didn’t really happen till one week before competition.

“I was worried we wouldn’t have it ready to go by the time competition started,” said Codner. “It was a really hard show to get on its feet, and I think that’s why we took Superiors.”

Because of the extra challenges caused by the coronavirus restrictions, this year’s Winterguard team was smaller than it is most years. Because of that, two of the youngest Winterguard team members, Anna Grimshaw and Reece Tappen, got put on Rifle, which is one of the most advanced performance pieces, typically reserved for older, more advanced students.

“Getting put on rifle your first or second season is quite the undertaking,” Codner said. “Having a smaller team forced our existing members to grow exponentially.”

As the season progressed, Codner utilized the input from Brian Dutton, a Colorguard and Winterguard choreographer who lives in Missouri. Codner would record her team’s performances and send them to Dutton, who would then reply with suggestions where the team’s performance could be pushed, such as which members might be capable to doing a more difficult rifle toss or adding a more complicated dance element.

“I always push them to do harder elements, even if we don’t end up using them,” Codner said, “and this year we ended up using several of those more difficult elements.

It was fun to watch them get it.”

Braxton Harris pushed for and achieved a quad spin on Rifle. Mariessa Fowler also did a more challenging toss. “And she nailed it!” Codner exclaimed.