St. Thomas Alumni wins Chicago with straight firsts

Wheaton, Illinois – June 14-15, 2024 – St. Thomas Alumni of Houston were the big winners at the 2024 Chicago Highland Games, winning Grade 1 against Florida’s City of Dunedin in warm and sunny weather at DuPage County Fairgrounds on the north side of the city. A total of 38 bands entered the five grades at the competition.

Under Midwest Pipe Band Association sanctioning, judges used headsets and verbal comments, uploaded in real-time to the cloud, with results input and produced automatically, bands able to listen to comments immediately after the results.

The event had three circles for bands. Five associations were represented in the judging, with three from the RSPBA

Throughout the two days of solo and band events, competitors had to watch out for a somewhat surreal situation with an infestation of cicadas, large and noisy bugs of “Brood XII,” that tended to land on startled players from time to time, apparently attracted to the drone sound.

The solo competitions were held on Friday, and Nick Hudson of Houston won all four Open piping events.

Grade 1
Medley
1st St. Thomas Alumni (1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1)
2nd City of Dunedin (2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2)
Mid-section: St. Thomas Alumni
Judges: David Hilder, Tom Weithers, Andrew Carlisle (piping); Doug Stronach, Keith Orr ( drumming); Bob Worrall, John Wilson (ensemble)

MSR
1st St. Thomas Alumni (1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1)
2nd City of Dunedin (2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2)
Mid-section: St  Thomas Alumni
Judges: Tom Weithers, John Wilson, David Hilder, Shaunna Hilder (piping); Doug Stronach, Keith Orr (drumming) ; Bob Worrall, Alex MacIntyre (ensemble)

Grade 2
Overall
1st Ulster Scottish
2nd MacMillan
3rd Cascadia
4th Great Lakes
5th Midlothian Scottish
6th Greater Midwest
7th City of Chicago
Drumming: Ulster Scottish
Mid-section: Ulster Scottish

Medley
1st Ulster Scottish (1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1)
2nd MacMillan (2,3,2,2,4,3,2,2)
3rd Great Lakes (5,5,4,5,2,2,3,3)
4th Midlothian Scottish (3,2,3,4,5,5,5,4)
5th Cascadia (4,4,6,3,3,4,4,6)
6th Greater Midwest (6,6,5,6,7,6,6,5)
7th City of Chicago (7,7,7,7,6,7,7,7)
Judges: Tom Weithers, Andrew Carlisle, Alex MacIntyre, Shaunna Hilder (piping); Keith Orr, Doug Stronach (drumming); Bob Worrall, John Wilson (ensemble)

MSR
1st Ulster Scottish (1,1,1,1,2,1,1)
2nd MacMillian (2,3,2,2,3,3,2,2)
3rd Cascadia (3,2,3,4,5,4,3,4,)
4th Great Lakes (5,4,6,6,2,1,4,6)
5th Greater Midwest (6,6,5,3,6,5,5,3)
6th Midlothian Scottish (4,5,4,5,4,6,7,5)
7th City of Chicago (7,7,7,7,7,7,6,7)
Judges: Tom Weithers, Andrew Carlisle, David Hilder, John Wilson (piping); Keith Orr, Doug Stronach (drumming); Bob Worrall, Alex MacIntyre (ensemble)

Grade 3
Overall
1st Vale United
2nd Macalester College
3rd Westminster
4th St. Andrew’s Winnipeg
5th Turlach Ur
6th North Coast
Drumming: Vale United
Mid-section: Westminster

Medley
1st Vale United (1,2,1,2,2,2,1,2)
2nd Macalester College (5,1,2,3,1,1,2,1)
3rd Westminster (2,4,3,1,5,3,3,3)
4th St. Andrew’s Winnipeg (3,5,5,4,3,4,5,5)
5th Turlach Ur (4,3,4,5,6,6,4,4)
6th North Coast (6,6,6,6,4,5,6,6)
Judges: Tom Weithers, Andrew Carlisle, David Hilder, Shannua Hilder (piping); Keith Orr, Doug Stronach (drumming); Alex MacIntyre, John Wilson (ensemble)

MSR
1st Vale United (2,1,1,1,1,1,2,1)
2nd Macalester College (4,5,2,2,2,2,1,3)
3rd Westminster (1,3,5,4,3,4,3,2)
4th St. Andrew’s Winnipeg (5,2,3,3,4,5,5,5)
5th Turlach Ur (3,4,4,5,6,6,4,4)
6th North Coast (6,6,6,6,5,3,6,6)
Judges: Tom Weithers, Andrew Carlisle, David Hilder, Shannua Hilder (piping); Keith Orr, Doug Stronach (drumming); Alex MacIntyre, Bob Worrall (ensemble)

Grade 4 (medley)
1st 87th Cleveland (1,3,1,1)
2nd Chicago Stockyard Kilty (4,1,2,3)
3rd Madison (2,2,5,2)
4th Dundee Scottish (3,4,6,6)
5th Cincinnati Caledonian (7,7,3,4)
6th Caledonia Kilty (5,5,7,5)
7th City of Chicago (Gr4) (6,6,4,7)
Judges: Andrew Carlisle, Shaunna Hilder (piping); Keith Orr (drumming); John Wilson (ensemble)

Grade 5 (march medley)
1st Kansas City St. Andrew (1,1,6,3)
2nd Capitol City (2,3,7,1)
3rd Oklahoma Fire (6,5,2,5)
4th Memphis (5,7,4,6)
5th Chicago Celtic (7,6,1,9)
6th Macalester College (Gr5) (11,8,3,2)
7th 87th Cleveland (Gr5) (9,9,5,4)
8th Firefighters Highlands Guard of Naperville (3,2,15,12)
9th Flint Scottish (4,4,14,11)
10th North Coast (10,11,8,8)
11th Spirit of Michigan (8,14,11,7)
12th Turlach Ur (Gr5) (13,12,9,10)
13th City of Rockford (12,10,12,14)
14th Chicago Highlanders (Gr5) (14,13,10,13)
15th Celtic Cross (ens.pref.) (15,15,16,15)
16th Chicago Stockyard Kilty (16,16,13,16)
Judges: Alex MacIntyre, David Hilder (piping); Doug Stronach (drumming); Bob Worrall (ensemble)

Open Solo Piping
Piobaireachd
1st Nick Hudson
2nd Andrew Donlon, Washington, DC
3rd Will Shropshire, Durham, North Carolina
4th Mike Rogers, Maryland
5th Tom Cangelosi, Arlington, Virginia
6th Andrew Lewis, St. Paul, Minnesota
Judge: Bob Worrall

MSR
1st Nick Hudson
2nd Andrew Lewis
3rd Cameron MacDougall, Scotland
4th Jack Williamson, Topeka, Kansas
5th Andrew Donlon
6th Derek Midgley
Judge: John Wilson

Hornpipe & Jig
1st Nick Hudson
2nd Cameron MacDougall
3rd Andrew Donlon
4th Derek Midgley, Tinton Fall, New Jersey
5th Austin Diepenhorst, San Diego
6th Charles McKee
Judge: David Hilder

6/8 March
1st Nick Hudson
2nd Cameron MacDougall
3rd Jack Williamson
4th Andrew Donlon
5th Derek Midgley
6th Tyler Destremps
Judge: Alex MacIntyre