Zionsville High School’s Marching Eagles’ quest for their first state finals appearance has been put on hold for another year.

“Our performance at semistate was not our best. Many parts of the show were better than ever, but we just didn’t quite hit it out of the park,” said Tom Landrum, Zionsville director of bands in an e-mail.

Landrum said the cold, windy weather was a factor during Zionsville’s Indiana State School Music Association semistate showing Oct. 24 at Pike High School. It was the second consecutive semistate appearance for Zionsville.

The band, which performed “Rhapsody,” took the field just before 2 p.m., performing fifth out of 20 Class B bands. It was one of the coldest (49 degrees) and most windy parts of the afternoon.

“I believe the wind chill had to make it feel as though the temperature was in the 30s, and the wind was strong enough to nearly knock me off the backfield drum major stand while conducting the preshow warm-up,” Landrum said. “Despite the wind and cold, our students still put on a great show. The color guard girls especially did a amazing job with their flags in that wind.”

About an hour after the Marching Eagles performed, the sun came out and wind died down, according to band publicity chair Julie Rauschuber.

Zionsville’s band wasn’t the only one to catch a bad weather break. Rauschuber said just two of the seven bands from the colder part of the day advanced while eight of the remaining 13 advanced after the weather improved.

Landrum said the best performance of the year was probably during practice at the Indianapolis Colts practice facility Oct. 23.

Zionsville had earned its highest score of the season at the regional Oct. 17 at Lafayette Jeff.

“The biggest letdown wasn’t necessarily not making it to the state finals, it is just knowing that we will never get to see this show performed again,” Landrum said.

Landrum said “Rhapsody” was a crowd favorite each week.

Landrum praised the job of the students, staff, parent volunteers, and Lori Byrum and Liz Qua for making arrangements for meals for 130 people.