Blue Devils one-up past record season in front of near-record San Antonio crowd

The DCI Southwestern Championship pres. by Fred J. Miller, Inc. featured the largest non-World Championship lineup on the 2022 DCI Tour in front of the second-largest Alamodome drum corps crowd since DCI first entered the San Antonio venue in 1999 at 14,697 — just over 100 shy of the record set in 2017 — in DCI’s long-awaited turn to the familiar venue.

And ultimately, Blue Devils emerged atop the 19-corps leaderboard, continuing the corps’ undefeated season with a top score of 92.175, which eclipses its San Antonio output from its 2014 all-time record-holding competitive season.

“Everything we do during the week, anytime we’re rehearsing, we’re prepping for our Saturday night shows,” Blue Devils drum major Corey Castillo said. “The corps has been super hyped for such a long time to get in here and perform.”

View all San Antonio scores and recap

 

1. Blue Devils » 92.175
2. Boston Crusaders » 90.700
3. Carolina Crown » 90.425
4. Bluecoats » 89.900
5. Santa Clara Vanguard » 88.750

The Blue Devils win marked the corps’ 11th in a row to start the 2022 DCI Tour. The Concord corps earned top scores in all captions except color guard and percussion.

Boston Crusaders — who, during the week leading up to Saturday’s event, defeated Santa Clara Vanguard for the first time since 2004 and Bluecoats for the first time since 2005 — outscored Carolina Crown for just the second time in 15 years.

The Boston corps, which has never finished a season among the top-three scorers, earned the night’s top score in the color guard caption and finished second in percussion.

“It’s kind of nerve-wracking coming out here, especially with such a competitive lineup,” Boston Crusaders drum major Marelyn Castro said. “We’ve been breaking records so far for our corps in general, so coming out here and breaking records is something really special to us and really keeps us motivated.”

Carolina Crown finished close behind Boston Crusaders, largely thanks to its second-place general effect score. The Fort Mill, South Carolina corps also outscored its Boston-based opponent in visual proficiency, brass and music analysis.

Bluecoats remained within close distance of both Carolina Crown and Boston Crusaders; its second place visual proficiency and visual analysis scores were a standout.

Similarly to its placement at key previous events in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma and Denton, Texas, Santa Clara Vanguard rounded out the top-five, while finishing first in percussion.

 

6. The Cadets » 86.025
7. Blue Stars » 84.613
8. Mandarins » 83.813
9. The Cavaliers » 83.250
10. Phantom Regiment » 82.175

After a close finish of just two tenths between the two Friday in Houston, The Cadets opened up a wider advantage over Blue Stars, earning a lead of nearly a point and a half thanks largely to a significant lead in music captions. The Cadets, who earned sixth in San Antonio, haven’t finished a season among the top-six corps since 2016.

Blue Stars, though, finished a very successful competitive week — one that started with the corps making history Monday in Olathe, Kansas — with a top-seven finish. Were the La Crosse, Wisconsin corps to hold serve in seventh place or better by season’s end, it would earn its highest final placement since 1975.

“We’ve been putting in a ton of work and reaping some of the rewards,” Blue Stars drum major Karina Howey said. “But there’s still plenty to go. It’s the beginning of the end, and we’re really excited to surge to the finish.”

For the first time ever, Mandarins scored ahead of The Cavaliers by a slim margin of 0.563. Mandarins’ most notable scoring strengths came by way of its seventh-place color guard and brass scores.

In the first meeting of the two northern Illinois-based corps since tying with one another Monday in Olathe, Kansas, The Cavaliers earned an advantage of just over one point over Phantom Regiment. The Green Machine outscored its Rockford, Illinois opponent in all captions except color guard and general effect 2.

“It was a fantastic run,” Cavaliers drum major Matthew Warren said. “Definitely the culmination of our efforts coming back from COVID. It’s always magical what this corps can do.”

Phantom Regiment earned the last spot in the top 10 by a considerable scoring margin, defeating Blue Knights head-to-head — for the second time in as many meetings between the two this summer — by just over three points. Thursday in Denton, Texas, marked Regiment’s first time outscoring the Denver corps since mid-July 2018.

“The past few days, and honestly the past few weeks, the organization has been going from the next level to the next level to the next level,” Regiment conductor Geneva Le said. “Coming off the field now it’s sort of surreal in some ways. I saw a lot of happy faces from the members and that’s really the tell of how we did.”

 

11. Blue Knights » 79.125
12. Colts » 78.600
13. Crossmen » 78.313

Colts continues to climb the rankings with hopes of claiming a spot among DCI’s top-12 World Championship finalists for the first time since 2007. The Iowa corps passed Crossmen for the first time this summer by a small margin of .287 after falling more than 2.5 points behind the San Antonio corps earlier this July.

After a pair of close finishes during the past week, Blue Knights may be the next group in Colts’ sights; the two were separated by 0.2 Thursday in Denton, and 0.525 Saturday. Blue Knights held serve in 11th place thanks to slim advantages over the Iowa corps in general effect and music.

“With all the heat we’ve had the past few days it’s taken a lot out of the performers,” Colts program coordinator Don Click said about the lead-up to the corps’ San Antonio performance. “(Tonight) they really rose to the occasion.”

Crossmen — who earned a pair of head-to-head wins over Colts in the earlier part of the season — scored within striking distance; the San Antonio corps earned a strong lead over its Dubuque, Iowa counterpart in visual captions.

 

14. Troopers » 77.125
15. Madison Scouts » 75.100
16. The Academy » 73.100
17. Music City » 72.175
18. Pacific Crest » 70.950
19. Genesis » 69.250

Troopers — which finished 18th in 2019 — is poised to be one of 2022’s highest risers after a 14th-place finish in San Antonio. The Casper corps held a strong lead of 2.025 over the Madison Scouts and scored as high as 11th in the percussion caption. The Madison corps earned a spot in the night’s top 15 thanks to strong leads over The Academy in music captions.

In its first meeting with the Arizona corps, Music City scored significantly close to The Academy relative to the two corps’ head-to-head results in 2019 where they stood 7.65 points apart at the end of the season. Comparatively, the two were separated by just 0.925 points on Saturday in San Antonio. Music City also outscored the Arizona corps in music captions.

The Academy held its lead, though, thanks to solid advantages in general effect and visual scores, especially color guard, in which the corps finished in 15th place.

Music City has had a strong first half of the 2022 DCI Tour, tracking some two points ahead of its scores in this same time period compared to both 2018 and 2019.

“It’s a very different group since I started with the corps,” drum major Katie Buck said. “Everyone is excited about what’s happening.”

Pacific Crest remained within striking distance of the Nashville corps and scored as high as 16th in color guard. Not far behind, Genesis rounded out the World Class field while finishing 18th in the brass caption.

 

1. Guardians » 64.475

Guardians represented DCI’s Open Class division with a strong performance of the corps’ 2022 production, “From Scratch.” Saturday marked Guardians’ third appearance on the 2022 DCI Tour; its tally in San Antonio was an improvement of more than four points from its 2019 score at the same event. 

Following Saturday’s event in San Antonio, its 20 participating ensembles will make their way toward Texas-based events in Mesquite (June 25), Corpus Christi (June 25) and McKinney (June 26), before the 2022 DCI Tour heads toward the southeastern United States.

View upcoming events on the 2022 DCI Tour

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