{"id":15902,"date":"2025-10-30T15:51:57","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T21:51:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/marching-panthers-rise-to-fourth-in-state\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:52:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:52:08","slug":"marching-panthers-rise-to-fourth-in-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/marching-panthers-rise-to-fourth-in-state\/","title":{"rendered":"Marching Panthers rise to fourth in state"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The
The Montezuma-Cortez High School Marching Panthers celebrate their fourth-place 2A state performance at Stocker Stadium in Grand Junction on Monday, Oct. 27. (M-CHS Athletics and Activities Facebook<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

CORTEZ \u2013 A long line of Montezuma-Cortez High School band seniors and their families honored at halftime of the final home football game nearly stretched from end zone to end zone at Panther Stadium. Their numbers reflect the pride the school takes in its acclaimed band program.<\/p>\n

Director of Bands William Winslow, who took the baton several years ago, has built steady momentum. The band\u2019s Friday night performances offer a glimpse into a program that\u2019s become a rhythmic heartbeat of the community.<\/p>\n

Early morning practices echoing across Cortez paid off at the state level, where the Marching Panthers earned fourth place in their division.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was confident that if the students could really bring it for the semifinals performance on Monday, we had a good shot of moving up a couple of places and making finals,\u201d Winslow said of the team\u2019s leap from sixth to fourth. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty rare for teams to jump places in competitive marching band, so to go up two spots is almost unheard of.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Panthers advanced to the finals of the 2A division after earning one of 10 semifinalist spots at Stocker Stadium in Grand Junction on Oct. 27. M-CHS scored 66.4 points in the semis and improved to 68 in the finals, finishing behind The Classical Academy (74.7), University (71.85) and Eaton (69.75).<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s show, \u201cLimitless,\u201d featured \u201cAnother Day of Sun\u201d from La La Land, \u201cAurora Awakes\u201d by John Mackey and \u201cDreams\u201d by Van Halen.<\/p>\n

\"The
The Marching Panthers line up behind drum majors Jonathan Sandner and Becca Story during their fourth-place 2A state performance Oct. 27 at Stocker Stadium in Grand Junction. (M-CHS Athletics and Activities Facebook)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cThe music was fun and the students really seemed to buy into it,\u201d Winslow said. \u201cAnd they were able to put the show on the field faster than we\u2019ve ever been able to before \u2013 which gave us plenty of time to refine and polish elements to make it the best possible.\u201dDrum majors Jonathan Sandner, a senior, and Becca Story, a junior, led the band\u2019s coordination.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey make a great duo,\u201d Winslow said. \u201cThey were passionate about making the band better and the culture thrived under their leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n

Winslow also credited percussion and color guard coaches Preston and Robyn Sitton, and assistant director Jacob Shackleton, for assembling the show\u2019s many moving parts. Winslow and his wife, Morgan, welcomed their first child this year, deepening his appreciation for the support he\u2019s received.<\/p>\n

Experienced performers helped shape expectations for younger students.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey had great attitudes and high motivation all across the band,\u201d Winslow said. \u201cJust like our music theme, they are limitless, and can achieve absolutely anything they want.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Director of Bands William Winslow guides another successful season<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15903,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[38,39,28,37,36],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-15902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-dolores-high-school","tag-dove-creek-high-school","tag-headlines","tag-mancos-high-school","tag-montezuma-cortez-high-school"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15902"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15902\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20745,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15902\/revisions\/20745"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15902"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=15902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}