The International Championship of Collegiate A Capella held its Midwest divisional round in Lincoln Hall Saturday night.

No Strings Attached, representing the University of Illinois, took first place and will compete at the regional finals at the University of Wisconsin Feb. 19. After Dark and Mosaic Whispers, both from Washington University in St. Louis, and True Men, from Truman State University in Kirksville, Mo., all advanced to the regional semi-finals.

Seven groups, including three from the University, performed in front of a sold-out Lincoln Theater crowd.

“This was a tough competition, it always is,” said Elizabeth Watt, junior in communications and singer of No Strings Attached. “There are so many good a capella groups in the Midwest…we’re really happy.”

“We think we sang really well tonight, it’s exciting.”

The show was hosted by the Xtension Chords, a University a capella group that already advanced to the regional finals by taking first place in their divisional competition on Jan. 29. The group kept the audience entertained between acts while judges made their decisions.

“It’s a very selective process just to even compete, let alone place,” said Alan Chang, president of the Xtension Chords and senior in business.

Members of each participating group were all very impressed with each other.

“We were looking forward to ICCA, and now we’re just looking forward to performing more,” said Michael Gardner, singer of University group No Comment, formerly Guys and Dolls and sophomore in LAS.

“We’ve got a good amount of gigs on the table,” said Mark Silverman, also of No Comment and freshman in business.

The judges also presented the outstanding soloist and choreography awards, which are only given to those the judges felt were extraordinary, to Julie Cling of After Dark of Washington University and True Men of Truman State University, respectively.

The International Championship of Collegiate A Capella is broken into six regions: west, midwest, south, mid-atlantic, northeast and New England. Each region has several divisional rounds before its regional final. The top group in each divisional round advances to the regional final, with the three runners-up advancing to the regional semifinal.

The top three groups move on to the regional finals, and the top group in each regional final then advances to the national final, held April 30 in New York City.

Competing in the midwest regional finals will be the Xtension Chords, No Strings Attached and Straight No Chaser from Indiana University. There will also be one group from the last divisional round and three groups from the semifinals. The last divisional round will be held at Millikin University Feb. 12.