It may have been Ten40’s home-field advantage that led them to victory Saturday at the 2014 International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella tournament.
The tournament was hosted by Bowling Green High School at 7 p.m. this past Saturday and featured 10 different a cappella groups, including three from The Ohio State University as well as groups from various universities in Ohio, Michigan and Canada.
Sophomore Ten40 soloist Travis Mollohan was excited about the group’s win.
“I was surprised when we won, honestly,” Mollohan said. “I thought we did well and the audience seemed to be into us, but we were competing against some really great groups.”
“Intentional Accidental” from the University of Waterloo took second, while “Buck That!”, an all-male group from The Ohio State University took third.
Throughout the show, each group was allowed 12 minutes to perform different arrangements and display their talents.
The performances included everything from matching outfits to vocal percussion to elaborate choreography.
While traditional a cappella features religious music, the groups in the ICCA tournament leaned towards contemporary and pop music.
Sophomore Michelle Latosky thought this was a smart move.
“I’ve never been to one of these kinds of shows so I didn’t really know what to expect,” Latoksy said. “I liked the ones that sang songs I knew, it made it more enjoyable.”
Mollohan had some insight into why the group took the win.
“The audience can tell when you’re enjoying yourself on stage,” Mollohan said. “I think that was a key factor that stood us out from the other groups personally.”
The competition concluded with a performance from special guests America’s Pride dancers, who promote a positive image of living a drug-free life. The dancers brought audience members on stage for an interactive performance including hip hop lessons, line dances and lip syncing.
Awards given were to individuals, including outstanding soloist, arrangement and vocal percussion. Then, a group was selected for outstanding choreography before the top three groups of the night were announced.
Coming off from a win, junior Ten40 member Andrew Sabol talked about the group’s game plan for advancing into the Semifinal.
“We’ve never been a competition group,” Sabol said. “We’re just gonna polish our performance and take things and choreography from the other groups as inspiration to try to improve.”
Ten40 advances to the ICCA Great Lakes Semifinal, which will be hosted on March 15 at Rackham Auditorium in Ann Arbor, Mich.
