Two Central Oregon schools emerged victorious from the Oregon School Activities Association’s Band/Orchestra Championships, held May 8-11 at Oregon State University in Corvallis.

Bend’s Summit High School Wind Ensemble took the 5A competition, while the Ridgeview High School Band from Redmond brought home the first-place trophy in the 4A division.

For Summit High, it was the 45-piece band’s third consecutive year placing first.

Being a repeat victor is especially tough, said Cecile Cuddihy, parent of a trumpet player in the ensemble. “They do not know who their opponents will be, nor do they know what their competition will be playing, which is why being a repeating champion is so difficult.”

Adding to the challenge, says the group’s director, Dan Judd, was the fact that attrition was high due to the annual loss of graduating seniors.

“We lost 25 players out of a 45-piece group,” Judd said. However, if the ensemble was a long shot to win, no one seemed too worried about it.

“We don’t talk about it much in band. We just work on the music, and we figure the ratings and that sort of stuff takes care of itself. But it was really fun to see how much these guys poured into it.”

Leading up to the competition, “I’d been telling them, ‘Don’t go over there with your heart set on any one thing. It’s really hard to repeat,’ ” Judd said.

In its first year, the 46-member Ridgeview High School Band, led by Dave Sime, managed to become the first band from Redmond to earn a placing at the state level, according to a Redmond School District post announcing the win on its website.

Along with the main band competition, which students spend the year preparing for, there is also a sight-reading component at the championships. For this portion, bands are given a new piece of music and have just seven minutes to prepare a performance. Ridgeview Band, which has no seniors in it and is made up of 85 percent freshmen, won this portion of the event as well.

“I am so proud of our students,” Sime is quoted in the announcement. “Our goal was to make sure that they would walk off the stage knowing that they performed their best. This is an accomplishment they can be proud about for their entire life.”