FREDERICKTOWN — One of the crowd pleasers at the Fredericktown Tomato Show — the Lip-Sync contest — took place Thursday night.
The show features local talent lip-synching to their favorite music with some groups staging elaborate choreography to go along with the music.
The entries are judged by age group and awards are made to group and solo acts within each age group. There are also overall awards with the Director’s Award going to the best overall performance, Best Costume and Best Theme awards.
In all there were more than 30 acts registered by show time. As always, the acts were well rehearsed and well presented with a lot of attention to detail such as costumes.
In the up to 8 years old solo/duet category winners were Morgan Mowery, first place, doing “Let’s Do This.” Second place went to Blake Dowalter and third to Samantha Maglott.
The up to 8 years old group first-place award went to a group made up of Hannah Vaughn, Georgie Caputo and Kelsey Boeshart doing “I get Down.”
There was a tie for first place in the 9-to 11-year-old solo/duet category. Lauren Richdale and Sophia Oster were unable to out do the other. Second place went to Brittany Ehrett, and third place went to the duo of Holly McClay and Lauren Partington with fourth place taken by Tiler Cherryholmes.
There was a lot of competition in the 9-to 11-years-old group category resulting in another tie, this time for fourth place. At the top, taking first place was the group of Lauren Richdale, Elyse Swihart and Bailey Hoeflick. Second place was taken by Sophia Oster, Olivia Oster, Alexi Shehan, Tristan Shehan, Clara Bradley and Jonah Bradly. Coming in a close third were David Morris, Noah Childers and Olivia Childers. The fourth place tie was between the group of Cassandra Vaughn, Brittany Ehrett and Megan Mast and the group with Leia Hoeflich, Kendra Denton and Aria Hoeflich.
Moving up to the next age category, the 12-to 15-year-olds, the winners in the solo/duet competition were, first place Caity Gaddis and Nick Wheeler. Second place went to a solo act by Miriam Morris. The duet of Drezden young and Kara Dilts came in third with Hayley Allbrightin fourth place.
There were some familiar names in the 12 to 15 year old group, the only entry in that category with Miriam Morris, Grace Childers and Aiden Brown. This group also took second place in the overall best theme competition which was “Fun in the Sun.”
There were just two entries in the 16 and older competition with Gabrielle Oster taking first place and a group called Sibling Rivalry consisting of Kaylynn and Kirsten Cockrell.
But the high point of the evening was the 16 and older group “Rockin’ Rydell.” This group consisted of Jason Wood, Demi Marshall, Katy Meyer, Justin Shaw, Donna Myer, Drew Biggs, Evelyn Hunter, Penny Haynes, Kathy Boggs, Devon Carpenter, Sheila Miles, Mikalyn Hunter and Elesha Haynes. The Rockin’ Rydells obviously put a lot of thought and a lot of work into this crowd pleasing number. They did a medley of songs from the movie “Grease” called “Summer Lovin’.” This rollicking piece had the crowd on its collective feet and for the first time in recent memory an encore was demanded.
The Rockin’ Rydells took first place in its age group as well as the overall Director’s Award for the best production, Best Costumes and Best Theme.
