They’ve practiced for months — three hours a day, three times a week — and it’s finally time to show off their skills. They aren’t nervous, though. They’ve got this.

“We don’t psych ourselves out and worry that the judges are critiquing us or worry about the parts we might mess up,” said Scott Stover, tenor for the UIUC a cappella group No Comment (NoCo) and sophomore in ACES. “We’re just having fun, and that’s why we all do it. We obviously love performing.”

It was this mentality going in to the International Championships of Collegiate A Cappella (ICCA) quarterfinals competition on Feb. 2 that helped the 15-member co-ed group, which was founded in 2004, win three out of the four possible awards.

This was the first time NoCo has placed at the ICCA, which was held this year at Illinois State University, Stover said. Not only did they win first place over seven other groups, but they also won best soloist, which went to Kelsey Stanker, senior in FAA, and outstanding choreography for their entire set.

“Winning best soloist was completely shocking and overwhelming in the best way,” Stanker said, who sings alto, mezzo and soprano. “I didn’t see it coming, but the rest of my group saw it coming the whole night. I felt very honored and overcome with disbelief.”

NoCo’s set included a Ben Rector cover of Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody,” “Breathe Again” by Sara Bareilles, and “Clarity” by Zedd.

“I was a lot more excited about our set this year,” Stover said. “And obviously it makes a big difference when you’re excited about what you’re singing versus singing songs that you’re not really fond of. Our set was so diverse, and it really made us stand out.”

The group was judged on various aspects of their performance, including dynamics — or the ability to sing loud and soft rather than staying the same volume — as well as arrangement and choreography.

“The arrangement is taking a song that you hear on the radio and actually making it to what we’ll actually sing,” Stover said. “So, the actual piece of music that we’ll read from and learn from.”

Stover thinks one reason for NoCo’s success is that they’re a co-ed group, which allows for more diverse song choices.

“There’s no recreating a male bass voice in an all-girls group,” Stover said. “There’s no comparison … We can sing a guys’ song, a girls’ song, a duet, whereas an all-guy group can sing an all-girls song, but it doesn’t have the same effect.”

Madison Wilkinson, alto singer and sophomore in Business, attributes the group’s success to their close friendships.

“I consider these guys my best friends and sort of like another family,” she said. “We all have the same goals and same passions, and we’re all brought together by the same love of music, and I think that definitely helps.”

Another University all-male a cappella group, the Xtension Chords, took second place at the competition. Both NoCo and the Xtension Chords will move on to compete in the ICCA semi-finals on March 30 at E. Desmond Lee Concert Hall at Washington University in St. Louis.

At the semi-finals, NoCo will perform the same set as the quarterfinals, which is not a requirement but a choice, Stover said.

“We’re reworking some parts that we want to make sure we have everything right,” he said, “but it’s not just a two-month stress of beating the songs to death and making them crazy drilled.”

Although the ICCA is the only contest NoCo participates in, they average one gig per week, often performing on the Quad, and they started Christmas caroling in Champaign this year, Stover said.

They also have one show per year, which will be held on April 19. The show is called “AcEx,” or A Cappella Extravaganza, and will be held at Lincoln Hall.

Anyone is welcome to audition to join the group, Wilkinson said. Auditions are held at the beginning of each school year.

“It was such an accomplishment,” Wilkinson said about the victory.

“(We wanted) to show not only everybody else how well we can do, but we wanted to prove it to ourselves too. Just knowing how hard we worked and all the hours we put into it, seeing that it paid off was just so rewarding.”

Julia can be reached at [email protected].