Blue Devils set all-time record at highly-competitive San Antonio event

SAN ANTONIO — The 2023 DCI Summer Tour kicked into a new gear Saturday night.

At the season’s first “regional” event, the DCI Southwestern Championship presented by Fred J. Miller, Inc., the Concord, California corps — which hasn’t finished outside of first place at any event since August 8, 2019 — took top marks with an all-time-high San Antonio score of 92.600.

That score edges the previous Southwestern Championship record of 92.550 by a razor thin margin of just 0.05 points, a score that was held for more than a decade and a half by the 2006 Cavaliers.

View scores from the DCI Southwestern Championship pres. by Fred J. Miller, Inc

In front of a crowd of 14,084 in the Alamodome stands, the Blue Devils won the general effect, music and visual captions overall.

“We love these big shows,” Blue Devils drum major Corey Castillo said. “This is really our first big regional. It's just so exciting to see all the other corps and we're kind of feeding off each others’ energy being here. It was a great night for us.”

 

1. Blue Devils » 92.600
2. Boston Crusaders » 91.600
3. Bluecoats » 90.950
4. Carolina Crown » 90.563

Following a decent-sized scoring margin between Blue Devils and the corps’ closest competitors, an exciting race continued to unfold between Boston Crusaders, Bluecoats and Carolina Crown.

Boston Crusaders remained in its position ahead of the pack — the New England corps outscored Bluecoats and Carolina Crown at multiple head-to-head meetings in the week leading up to Saturday’s event — holding a lead of more than half a point over the third-place Bluecoats. Boston took first place in brass in San Antonio, a tenth and a half ahead of the Blue Devils.

Meanwhile, Bluecoats moved back ahead of Carolina Crown after finishing mere tenths behind the South Carolina corps at a pair of recent meetings. Bluecoats also won the color guard caption. While Bluecoats found a strong advantage in visual, including first-place marks in color guard, Carolina Crown outscored the Ohio corps in general effect and music.

“We’ve finally have some consistent rehearsal days,” Carolina Crown drum major Cooper St. John said. “We’ve been able to put a lot on the field and clean a lot of stuff. So it’s been really nice to see all the stuff that we're rehearsing and detailing show up on the field during performances as well.”

 

5. Phantom Regiment » 87.675
5. Mandarins » 87.675
7. The Cadets » 87.375

The Cadets finished within three tenths of a point from the Mandarins and Phantom Regiment who tied for fifth on the leaderboard. Saturday marked the first head-to-head meeting of any of these three corps.

While Mandarins held a two tenths advantage over Regiment in general effect, Regiment offset that with a two tenths advantage in music, and the two corps were dead even in the visual caption. The Cadets ranked ahead of both corps in music.

For Mandarins, scoring as high as fifth overall signifies a potentially major competitive jump for the corps in its 60th-anniversary season. Earning its first top-12 finish in 2018, the corps has ranked 10th the last three years.

“We have reached new heights this season,” Mandarins drum major Milo Bezuidenhout said. “We're doing more, we're reaching higher, and I'm really proud of the corps. They should be really proud of themselves this season.”

 

8. The Cavaliers » 85.513
9. Blue Stars » 84.175

In the two corps’ sixth head-to-head meeting of 2023, The Cavaliers outscored Blue Stars for the third consecutive time; the La Crosse, Wisconsin corps had held a slim advantage in the corps’ three previous matchups.

After opening up a lead of 0.8 Friday in Houston, The Cavaliers’ advantage grew to more than a point on Saturday. The Rosemont, Illinois corps posted strong scores in the music captions — including an impressive first-place finish in percussion — but Blue Stars ranked ahead of The Cavaliers in brass, color guard, and general effect 2.

“Our percussion section has been hard at work this entire season and [tonight’s placement in percussion] is only proof of the work they’ve done,” Cavaliers drum major Ian Callard said.

 

10. Colts » 82.950
11. Troopers » 82.938

Troopers and Colts each solidified their campaigns toward a second-consecutive DCI World Championship Finals appearances with top-12 finishes at Saturday’s event. The two corps met for the eighth time this season at the San Antonio contest, with Colts holding a head-to-head advantage for the second time.

Prior to Saturday, Troopers had outscored Colts in all but one of the corps’ previous meetings. Colts, however, scored ahead of Troopers by 0.35 points at the two’s most recent matchup, July 12 in Ankeny, Iowa.

At Saturday’s event, Colts ranked ahead of the Wyoming corps in general effect and music. Troopers scored over Colts in music captions and ranked ninth overall in percussion.

 

12. Pacific Crest » 80.475
13. Blue Knights » 80.138

In the midst of a standout competitive season, Pacific Crest earned an eye-opening 12th-place finish by a slim margin of 0.337 points over Blue Knights.

The southern California corps found a strong advantage in the visual caption overall to make up for the Denver corps’ lead in the music captions. Pacific Crest also outscored Troopers in color guard, while Blue Knights finished 10th in percussion.

“It’s been a great time, it’s a great run,” snare drummer Maddox Lister said. “It’s been super awesome (having success in 2023); we all love to band together.”

In advance of Saturday, the two corps have had one of the season’s more intriguing competitive races. Blue Knights and Pacific Crest met head-to-head six times before converging in San Antonio; the Denver corps held the higher score at the corps’ first three meetings, Pacific Crest took the next two, before Blue Knights regained a slim lead of just 0.05 points July 17 in Canyon, Texas.

“Everyone was excited about the dome show,” said Blue Knights drum major Laynie Metsker. “All the stuff that we were working on in rehearsal timing-wise with the brass being extra loud and battery (percussion) being right with the front (ensemble) — Everything just lined up super well.”

 

14. Crossmen » 78.125
15. The Academy » 77.438
16. Madison Scouts » 77.175
17. Spirit of Atlanta » 76.300
18. Music City » 75.400

Crossmen held a comfortable advantage in 14th place over its nearest competitors, leading 15th-place Academy by 0.687 points in the two corps’ first meeting of the summer. The San Antonio corps, which posted strong numbers in music captions, also opened up a decent-sized advantage over the 16th-place Madison Scouts. The two corps tied Thursday in Denton, Texas.

“We went into tonight’s warm-up feeling great,” Crossmen drum major Bernardo Magallanes said. “We had our serious face on, but we knew we were going to rock the house tonight.”

In seizing 15th place, The Academy scored as high as 13th in the visual caption overall, en route to a slim advantage of 0.263 over Madison Scouts. The Wisconsin corps outscored The Academy in overall music.

Spirit of Atlanta scored within a point of Madison Scouts and outscored the Madison corps in the visual caption. Music City, which was just under a point behind Spirit, scored an impressive 14th in percussion.

 

19. Genesis » 72.050
20. Seattle Cascades » 67.475

In 19th place, Genesis saw its tally dip slightly from July 20’s 72.700 in Austin, Texas. The corps scored 19th in every caption except percussion.

Seattle Cascades rounded out the World Class lineup in 20th place, earning a score of 67.475. 2023 marks the Seattle corps’ first set of performances since 2019.

“This is the one that we needed tonight,” Cascades drum major Dallan Heard said after performing on Saturday afternoon. “There’s a lot of obstacles that have kind of gotten in the way of our rehearsals recently, but today we came together as a drum corps. For the first time since 2019, I can say that we are a drum corps again.”

 

1. Guardians » 65.475

Guardians put in a strong performance for the corps’ home-state audience, improving their score more than a point since last competing Thursday in Denton.

“It was honestly one of the best performances we’ve had so far,” Guardians drum major Em Valadez said. “The energy of the crowd fed into us a lot.”

Following Saturday’s appearance, the Dallas-Fort Worth corps will have two weeks off from competitive performances, with its tour headed toward a series of key Open Class-centric events in the midwest, prior to the DCI Open Class World Championships in Marion, Indiana, August 7-8.

Within DCI’s SoundSport program, Arsenal completed its series of 2023 performances, earning a gold rating at Saturday’s event. Also utilizing the SoundSport format, the Thailand-based Kasetsart Winds presented an array of Thai-inspired concert music during the event’s evening intermission.

As for Saturday’s competing World Class corps, a handful will make their way to remaining Texas-based DCI Tour events in Mesquite (July 24) and McKinney (July 25), before the summer schedule makes its way toward key contests in the southeastern United States.

View the 2023 DCI Tour Schedule

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