The Stereotypes won the semi-final of a national a cappella competition on Saturday. The all-male singing group will be going to New York to compete in the finals.

The all-male group took first place out of eight competitors in the Midwest semifinal of the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella (ICCA), which was held Saturday night in Edison Theatre. The group edged out the University of Michigan’s G-Men by one point for the top spot and will now advance to the national final in New York City.

All of the a cappella groups that competed Saturday had placed first or second in their respective quarterfinal rounds. The semifinal win was a first for the Stereotypes, and group members explained that advancement this deep into ICCA was significant, not only for current members, but also for the history of the group.

“Basically we were founded because of wanting to do something different with all-male a cappella,” said senior Nevin Watkins, social chair of the Stereotypes. “We wanted to be competitive; essentially we wanted to do stuff like ICCA in order to challenge ourselves. This is the pinnacle of what we’ve come to.…We’ve been slowly reaching this every single year.”

The Stereotypes performed a three-song set that included arrangements of Bonnie Tyler’s “Holding Out for a Hero,” Keane’s “Somewhere Only We Know,” and John Legend’s “If You’re Out There.”

According to senior Dithu Rajaraman, the group’s musical director and co-choreographer, initial planning for the competition began after a narrow second-place finish in the 2010 semifinal.

“About a year ago…a couple of us started thinking [about] what we could do better. It was a slow start, but we were just thinking of song choices and the attitude of what we wanted to deliver, the kind of tone of the set that we would want to create,” Rajaraman said. “As far as this year, just intense rehearsals—there was a lot of musical work, but there was also a lot of emotional work and a lot of group cohesion, and that is a big part of why I think we are so fortunate to be so successful today.”

Although the set proved to be a winning formula at the Stereotype’s quarterfinal in February, senior Jonathan Branfman explained that the group strove for improvement between each round of competition. Preparation included work with Chip Broze, an alumnus of the Stereotypes and choral conducting student at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

“We definitely did not sit on our laurels after quarterfinals. We realized that the semifinals are a whole other level of competition and that in order to represent ourselves and Wash. U. well, we would have to step it up, and we did,” said Branfman, the Stereotypes’ co-recording chair. “[Broze] came back and did a couple workshops with us to enrich our tone and our ability to produce a really beautiful sound, and I think that came through tonight.”

ICCA producer Emily Flanders noted that the competition level for the semifinal was high, especially in the Midwest.

“I’ve been to a lot of semifinals in my day.…It was incredible. This show was epic,” Flanders said. “None of us knew who was going to win until we actually had the scores.…[Deliberations] took a long time because our judges were so impressed.”

The Stereotypes’ competitors at the national round will include the AcaBelles of Florida State University, Vocal Point of BYU, Pitch Slapped of the Berklee College of Music, the Buffalo Chips of SUNY Buffalo and a wild-card group that has not yet been named.

“I feel unbelievable. It’s been months and months—years of hard work—and I’m really excited that we get to show it all off in New York. [Advancing] is a really big deal to us, and we’re really excited to have had such strong support,” said senior Michael Shabot, the Stereotypes’ group coordinator. “I’m just so proud of each of the 16 members. Each member is truly dedicated to this group, and each person is the addition that has made this group what it is, and I’m so glad to be a part of it.”