Winter Guards Experience Success In Musical Arts Conference Competition

For the first time in the ten-year history of the Musical Arts Conference (MAC), the Newtown High School Winter Guard Juniors beat Bethel in head-to-head competition, coming through, Saturday at Trumbull High School.

The eight-girl guard, comprised of fifth-graders Jo Risko, Michael Glover, Isabelle Fitzgerald, Kiernan Kelly, and Lauren Montague, and sixth-graders Lauren Granville, Annika Alexander, and Erin Kelly, performed their show “Here Comes the Sun,” and bested Bethel by 1.6 points and Beecher by 6.7 points.

The Junior Guard is instructed by Bob Findley and Newtown High School Winter Guard Varsity captains Melissa Charles and Victoria Braga, who also led their own guard to a first place finish Saturday night, beating Danbury, Bethel, and Arlington high schools in the National Scholastic A division with their show “True Colors.” The Varsity Guard is preparing for its upcoming World Guard International Championships in Dayton, Ohio in April, and the team members will be continuing their Shake-A-Can fundraiser efforts this weekend and next, collecting donations at Stop & Shop, Newtown Deli, Newtown Hardware and Ace Hardware.

In their debut as a Scholastic A guard following last week’s surprise promotion by the MAC, the Junior Varsity performed the show “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You” and earned fourth place at the Trumbull show, achieving higher scores than four high school varsity guards and ending up just 4.3 points behind first-place New Milford High School. “We are quite proud of these girls who have progressed this fast to this level, at such a young age,” Findley said. He pointed out that only four of the 16 Junior Varsity members are actually in high school. The other students are at Newtown Middle School. “It’s an impressive accomplishment,” he added.

Under the tutelage of Findley, Janos Pergely, and Varsity Captains Sarah Smith and Nicole Scalora, the 16-member Scholastic A Guard is comprised of sophomores Kristin Campbell, Melissa Christiano, Haley Malin, and Tiffany Pileggi; freshman April Corbo; eighth-graders Nina Bonvini, Sarah Braga, Makenzie Casey, Courtney Datin, Kayleigh Granville, Caitlin Jones, Alyson Montague, Kelsea Morshuk, Bridget O’Donnell, and Brittany Violet; and seventh-grader Rebecca Romano.