Dobyns-Bennett High School in Kingsport took the top prize at Saturday's 53rd annual Contest of Champions held at Middle Tennessee State University.

Oakland High School won the Class A competition for bands with less than 80 musicians.

Siegel High School placed third in the Class AAA competition behind Dobyns-Bennett and Jasper High out of Indiana.

MTSU hosted the high school band competition, which features the finest bands in this region of the United States.

MTSU Director of Athletic Bands and Director of the Band of Blue Marching Band Craig Cornish tells NewsRadio WGNS the Contest of Champions is the oldest continuously running marching band competition in the U.S., and probably the world.

The event is primarily sponsored by the MTSU Band Department to further the artistic merit of school marching bands, to recruit and to help support the band department.

Twenty bands were in the competition, hailing from Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana and Alabama.

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In preliminary competition:

Oakland High School in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, won the Class A competition for bands with less than 80 musicians.
Ravenwood High School, from Brentwood, Tennessee, won the preliminary Class AA contest for bands with 81 to 120 musicians.

Dobyns-Bennett High School, from Kingsport, Tennessee, won the preliminary Class AAA contest for bands with more than 120 musicians.

Following the preliminaries, the top eight bands from preliminary competition went head to head regardless of classification, with Dobyns-Bennett being named the overall Grand Champion.

The order of finish for the final competition:

1. Dobyns Bennett High School, Kingsport, Tennessee

2. Jasper High School, Jasper, Indiana

3. Siegel High School, Murfreesboro, Tennessee

4. Ravenwood High School, Brentwood, Tennessee

5. Barren County High School, Glasgow, Kentucky

6. John Overton High School, Nashville

7. Union City High School, Union City, Tennessee

8. McGavock High School, Nashville

This is the second time that the Dobyns Bennett has won the Grand Championship. Lafe Cook is the school's director of bands.