Here is a recap of what was featured in the Wednesday, March 2, e-edition of the Taylor Press. The e-edition is mailed to subscribers and available at www.taylorpress.net.
COLOR GUARD WIN STATE TITLE
Taylor High School students have a new state championship and are moving ahead to national competition.
On Feb. 26, the THS Color Guard won first place overall as a senior class dance team after being ranked with a superior rating at state competition. Taylor also won the Judge’s Choice Award at the event, held at Klein Oaks High School in the city of Spring.
The wins were by the color guard’s varsity winter guard at the Marching Auxiliaries of America (MA) Texas State Championship. Winter guards are color guard groups that perform during the cold season and primarily indoors. MA conducts nationally acclaimed competitions and clinics for winter guards, dance teams, flag corps, rifle lines and majorettes.
Taylor will represent Texas at the 2022 MA National Championship at the University of Texas at Arlington March 25-26. For information on tickets and more, visit https://madance.com/ competitions/nationals.
LOCALS WIN WORLD TITLE AT HLSR
The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo (HLSR) crowned area residents world champions for their smoked goods.
Williamson County Go Texan, an area committee, won the 2022 World’s Championship Bar-B-Que Contest Feb. 26. The group was named overall grand champion.
“Almost every one of their divisions, two of the three they placed in the top 10, and the third one was in the top 20 out of 252,” said Tommy Hooker, Williamson County Go Texan president and ambassador.
For three days, Feb. 24-26, teams from across Texas and the world competed for championship titles in categories of brisket, ribs, chicken, Go Texan, dutch oven dessert and an open contest.
“This was only the second time our county has participated in the past couple of decades,” said Hooker.
SUSPICIOUS DEATH CASE RELOCATED
Investigation into a suspicious death northeast of Taylor has moved agencies.
The Pflugerville Police Department has taken over the case of a body found in 4200 block of County Road 414 Nov. 5, 2021. As of last week, there has been no update beyond the initial report.
Williamson County Sheriff’s Office deputies initially handled the case after they had responded to the scene at around 6:29 p.m. on the aforementioned date. A landowner found the body in a pasture, and it was determined to be a suspicious death. The name, sex, age and race of the deceased individual were not released.
VIRUS RATE FALLS TO FALL LEVELS
The number of new cases of COVID-19 in Williamson County continue to slash week to week.
Confirmed cases, which include past and current cases reported to the Williamson County and Cities Health District (WCCHD), increased by 313 in Williamson County Feb. 22-28.
As of Monday, Feb. 28, WCCHD confirmed a total of 109,537 COVID-19 cases in Williamson County during the pandemic. There were 4,935 new cases in February, which paled in comparison to the over 30,000 new cases in January.
Based on weekly tallies, the Jan. 11-24 average of 7,938 new cases each week was the peak rate increase of new weekly cases since Dec 21, 2021. During the fall, new cases each week had been well below a thousand.
