INDIANAPOLIS — When the Pendleton Heights High School Marching Arabians took the field at Lucas Oil Stadium for the 46th Annual Indiana State School Music Association finals Saturday, no one would have blamed the musicians for being a tad nervous. After all, the Arabians were performing at the top level — state finals — for the first time in school history.

Those nerves took a back seat, however, as the marching Arabians — one of the state’s top 40 bands competing — finished in ninth place in the Class B section of the contest.

Greenwood finished first, followed by Greenfield-Central, Northview (Brazil), Munster, Jasper, Northside (Fort Wayne), Bloomington North, Evansville North, Pendleton Heights and Northridge (Middlebury).

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The Marching Arabians’ performance was titled “Spintronics,” featuring music called “The First Circle” by Pat Metheny and “Dancing on My Own” by Patrik Berger.

Pendleton Heights turned in a great show, band director Chris Taylor said.

With it being the Marching Arabians’ first trip to state finals, more important than placement was the feeling of success they all had after walking off the field.

“They had a fantastic show, and everybody was incredibly proud,” Taylor said. “It was an amazing experience from the send-off through town to the great crowd response.”

The performance was a culminating moment for many of the band members, who have been working hard since middle school.

“We do all of the work in June and July on the hot pavement to have the most successful end to a season,” Taylor said. “It’s hard for mostly 13- to 18-year-olds to work hard for a goal that doesn’t get realized until months later, but these students understood and worked from beginning to end.”

One hundred and four Open Class bands began competing in mid-October at four regional sites. Eighty bands — 20 in each enrollment category, determined by size of school — continued to semistate performance at the end of October, with the top 40 bands, representing the best in the state, gathering to decide the four state champs.

Indiana high school marching bands consistently rank among the nation’s finest, and the competition is widely known as one of the best state high school marching band events in the country, state program leaders wrote in a press release.