TUPELO - Olive Branch High School won the Mississippi Invitational Marching Classic on Saturday at Tupelo High School.

The marching band competition was Saturday night after 28 bands from North Mississippi competed in the Region I Marching Band Festival, earlier in the day at THS. Those bands received ratings from judges but did not compete against each other.

Ten of the bands performed a second time for the evening competition. Bands were divided into two groups - blue and gold - based on their size.

Saltillo High School won the blue division for smaller bands, Oxford was second, Kossuth was third, and Amory was fourth. Olive Branch won the gold division, beating Southaven (second), Ripley (third) and Pontotoc (fourth). Finishing behind Olive Branch in the overall standings were Southaven, Ripley and Pontotoc respectively.

Placing first in the blue division captions were Kossuth (drum major), Oxford (drum line) and South Pontotoc (color guard). Kossuth was first overall in the drum major caption, while Olive Branch was first overall for drum line and color guard.

"I think everything went great," said THS Band Director Tim Matlock. "We had fantastic bands and good support from boosters, kids, parents and other directors. Everything went really well."

Several Northeast Mississippi bands will compete in the Mississippi High School Activities Association State Championships to be held on Oct. 27. Classes 1A and 6A will compete at Clinton High School, classes 2A and 3A will be at Hinds Community College, and classes 4A and 5A are at Pearl High School.

chris.kieffer@journalinc.com