Ok, thank you for the critique! I see what you mean about the sidelines/stands being distracting and I should have probably dropped the aperture even more. I think I was worried about the main subject becoming out of focus with the continuous shooting.
Believe it or not, this was actually zoomed in fully. The lens is a AF-S NIKKOR 55-200mm. This was the full 200mm. Here are the following 3 shots:
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