File photo The Monte Vista HS band won the 2009 Colo. Bandmasters Assn. Class 1A State Marching Band Championship Monday.

PUEBLO — The Monte Vista High School Band continued its winning ways Monday, taking first place in Class 1A at the Neta & Eddie DeRose ThunderBowl on the Colorado State University-Pueblo campus.

The daylong competition featured 24 bands, which had qualified to the semifinals on Monday morning. Under the direction of Shon Heersink and led by drum major Stephan Atencio, the band reached the finals with a semi-final score of 50.65, well above second place Cedaredge, which scored 47.05. Other bands in the semifinals were Platte Valley, Gunnison, Paonia and Hotchkiss.

In music performance, the band had a high average of 10; visual performance, 10.45 and general effect, 30.90, coming in second to Cedaredge (11.05) in visual performance.

The final scores saw the Pirate band again scoring well ahead of Cedaredge, which took second, and Platte Valley, which came in third.

In individual music performance, MVHS scored 9.80. Their ensemble score was 9.10, for an overall final average of 9.45.

By the finals, the band’s visual performance well outdistanced Cedaredge, 12.50 to 11.15. Platte Valley came in third with 10.25.

General effect scores saw Monte Vista logging 31.70 to Cedaredge’s 28.50 and Platte Valley’s 27.70.