After five days of intense tryouts, the 148th edition of The Ohio State University Marching Band was officially selected on Monday, August 19. Nearly 400 hopeful candidates competed for just 228 coveted instrumental spots in The Best Damn Band in the Land. The total band is made up of 248 students, which includes 8 members of D Row, the drum major training row, and 12 members of Student Staff.

The tryout process began on Thursday when the band’s 35 performing squad leaders, who are chosen for those positions by their peers in the off-season, officially earned their position in the band with a music and marching audition.

On Friday and Saturday, potential first-time members of the band took part in Candidate Days, where they learned the band’s unique marching style to prepare for the full, scored tryout process.

On Sunday and Monday, those potential first-year candidates joined the band’s veterans for two days of scored tryouts. Candidates were scored on their music abilities during a Sunday-morning session and then had four scored marching sessions combined on Sunday and Monday.

All students in the marching band, including returning members, must earn their spot each season. Veterans are not guaranteed a spot in the band on a year-to-year basis.

This year’s band represents an impressive cross-section of talent from across the country. Students hail from 18 different states, including Alabama, Alaska, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, and Washington.

For the final year, the band will include sixth-year students. This year, 9 sixth-years made the band.  Students have only been allowed five years of eligibility since the 1970s, but anyone who made the band in 2020 did not have that season count toward their five-year total. Sixth-year members in the 2025 marching band are Kevin Agyekum, Jacob Carlson, Jacob English, Carter Greenlees, Ray Johnson, Tristian Miller, Nick Pisanelli, Olivia Sexton, and Carter Smyke.

The 2025 Ohio State University Marching Band is as follows:

**-Head Squad Leader

*-Assistant Squad Leader

A01 Bobby Petty **
A02 Kevin Agyekum
A03 Robbie McCutcheon
A04 Benjamin Reinhard
A05 Connor Caviness
A06 Spencer Hurt
A07 Matthew Finney
A08 Joshua Weakley
A09 Alexander Butte
A10 Bryan Hobson
A11 Nick Schnitzspahn
A12 Henry Kochensparger*
A13 Cameron Beard
A14 Nolan Daly

B01 Eric Pattison**
B02 Will Fisher
B03 Sofia Barragan
B04 Noah Madsen
B05 Carson Forquer
B06 Logan Mayle
B07 Diego Leon
B08 Joshua Mason
B09 Zach Burns
B10 Ava Diederich
B11 Ellie Hill
B12 Favius Pena-Amaya*
B13 Kaitlyn Collinsworth
B14 Katie Comfort

C01 Payton Greulich**
C02 Colleen Hutchinson
C03 Zachary Spence
C04 Kim Bonk
C05 Preston Snoke
C06 Chase Sprenger
C07 Nathan DeRodes
C08 Lydia Hanna
C09 William Gilicinski
C10 Olivia Truocchio
C11 Nathan Asbury
C12 Kyle Short*
C13 Maddie Dalton
C14 Joseph Nada

D01 Joshua Ford**
D02 Brian Speckman*
D03 Benjamin Fox
D04 Jacob Snyder
D05 Ellie Conaway
D06 Romeo Gonzalez
D07 Cameron King
D08 Jalen Davis

E01 Christopher White**
E02 Trajan Emmert
E03 Nicholas Blum
E04 Allie Polzin
E05 Sami Steinhauser
E06 Ephraim Baturin
E07 Mirai Nawa
E08 Caleb Austin
E09 Ray Johnson
E10 Landen Gedeon
E11 Elayna Weber
E12 Megan Thompson*
E13 Haley Svec
E14 Jack Moore

F01 Owen Kovach**
F02 Nathan Greenberg
F03 Sebastian Pena
F04 Nicholas Thompson
F05 Holly Saunier
F06 Sam Giles
F07 Nick Olney
F08 Reese HillerFreund
F09 Samuel Harper
F10 Will Kerry
F11 Benjamin Ochsenfeld
F12 Michael Herring*
F13 Aaron Bekele
F14 Nicholas Zahniser

H01 Jacob Carlson**
H02 Andrew Eynon
H03 Gianna Marchese
H04 Blake Steele
H05 Rayhaan Mir
H06 Carter Greenlees
H07 Dominic Barnes
H08 Elliot Luman
H09 Christopher Cofer
H10 Angel Luong
H11 Ayden Casa
H12 Trevor Paul*
H13 Tori Klinger
H14 Nicholas Hejmanowski

I01 Faris Matus*
I02 Richard Kelly
I03 Nick Piccone
I04 Payton Yaffe
I05 Jillian Cupples
I06 Ethan Strohacker**
I07 Richard White
I08 Julien Brandon
I09 Brendan Barcus
I10 Grant Thieding
I11 Isaiah Silla
I12 Benjamin Kennedy
I13 James Shuman
I14 Zak Cielica

J01 Jillian Kumfer*
J02 Adam Quinn
J03 Jason Shuman*
J04 Alex Burlison**
J05 Zarek Ahmed
J06 Jared Yoder
J07 Michaela Strunck
J08 Jackson Dilts
J09 Joseph Speidel
J10 Thomas Giles
J11 Anthony Ravagnani
J12 Owen Morris
J13 Emily Harbison
J14 Garrett Campbell
J15 Alexander Klein
J16 Grayson Niemi
J17 Daniel Allen
J18 Dylan Miller

K01 Joseph Orr**
K02 Kelly Scott
K03 Robert Gawdyda
K04 Ryan Schoeff
K05 Ruth Bittence
K06 Mitchell Ewaska
K07 Logan Bartlett
K08 Matthew Sliwinski
K09 Adam Briggs
K10 Sydney Reeves
K11 Nick Pisanelli
K12 Evan Kvach*
K13 Adam Johnson
K14 Michael Farquharson

L01 Sean Bauman**
L02 Brayden Hyder
L03 James Mills
L04 Ryan Ouimet
L05 Joshua Goding
L06 Christian Heil
L07 Maxwell Deerwester
L08 Graham Randolph
L09 Conner Click
L10 Connor Croley
L11 Wyatt Smith
L12 Michael Bacasa*
L13 Andrew Markle
L14 Tarah Nnadi

M01 Alexander Ruble**
M02 Brendan Elliott
M03 Nathan Howe
M04 Isabel Burgos
M05 Sara Pawlikowski
M06 Leo Lipker
M07 Justin Planck
M08 Colin Fogerty
M09 Tommy McPommell
M10 Grace Bittence
M11 Jacob English
M12 Hannah Lyons*
M13 Sarah Gerkin
M14 Aidon Gardner

Q01 Callum Murphy**
Q02 Luke Brown
Q03 Andric McNabb
Q04 Trent Meiring
Q05 Mark Fanning
Q06 Jacob Myers
Q07 Gavyn Schooley
Q08 Ben Jordan
Q09 Carson Dickey
Q10 Abigail Miller
Q11 Michael Malone
Q12 Tristan Miller*
Q13 Lucia Cherok
Q14 Nathan Ramsey

R01 Adeline Harper**
R02 Adeline Hannig
R03 Olivia Sexton
R04 Randall Wiles
R05 Lucas Behrendsen
R06 Spencer Heintz
R07 Ki Jones
R08 Lydia VanVleet
R09 MiVan Pham
R10 Drew Chapman
R11 Josh Worland
R12 Kellen Horvath*
R13 David Grove
R14 Lauren Palecek

S01 Alexander Schroeder**
S02 Ethan Cox
S03 Grace Monfort
S04 Harrison Pumphrey
S05 Ray Ryzenga
S06 Lucas Wolf
S07 Carter Smyke
S08 Greg Miller
S09 Kaitlyn Konis
S10 Austin Smith
S11 Paige Pawlikowski
S12 Kenneth Shafer*
S13 Graham Bentley
S14 Amanda Hann

T01 AJ Derosette**
T02 Carolyn Hensley
T03 Michael Trepke
T04 Caden Wiant
T05 Connor Kachmarik
T06 Ava Grasso
T07 Kirsten Shaneyfelt
T08 Ellie Lang
T09 Eli Orkis
T10 Finn O’Connor
T11 Alex Tuma
T12 Stephen Gerstner*
T13 Everett Herald
T14 Jonah Wilhelm

X01 Brandon Jiang**
X02 AJ Alexander
X03 Dani Atai
X04 Danica Marshall
X05 Jud Lewis
X06 Nathaniel Bell
X07 Jonathan Levene
X08 Clare Niekamp
X09 Max Crandell
X10 Jacob Adkins
X11 Noah Ketcham
X12 Abigail Zunic*
X13 Carter Wells
X14 Brandon Reed

SS Heartly Phipps
SS Katelyn Hupp
SS Claire Ketcham
SS Zackary Bruce
SS Nic Digena
SS Rowan Hauer
SS Alex Desmarais
SS Erin Madden
SS Evan Schroeder
SS Hannah Eggenschwiler*
SS Matthew Son
SS Lucas Snouffer**