ORLANDO, Fla. — Bluecoats kept their undefeated season rolling through three weeks of competition, taking home top honors among seven World Class corps Sunday night at DCI Orlando presented by Great East Music Festivals and Music Store.
The Canton Corps’ high score of 83.750 was augmented by a commanding lead in general effect, which continues to be a major stronghold for the Bluecoats to date.
“That was probably my best show, and from what it sounded like, I think the rest of the corps can say the same,” Bluecoats assistant drum major Kolyn Wentzell said. “We’ve been working really hard these last couple days, and I really do think it showed off.”
Boston CrusadersIn one of the bigger surprises of the young 2018 season, Boston Crusaders finished in a dead tie with Carolina Crown for second place scoring 82.100. To cap off an outstanding past several days, Boston took top honors in the percussion and color guard captions, while doubling its advantage over The Cadets (4th, 78.600) from the start of the week.
Boston, which conducts many of its off-season rehearsal camps in the Florida area, had plenty of fans in the Camping World Stadium stands.
“Walking out here, you see that crowd, you hear them screaming for you — and they’re here for you,” Boston drum major Kait Oresky said. “I think that got everyone going immediately tonight.”
Spirit of AtlantaSpirit of Atlanta held strong in fifth place with a score of 71.850 to continue a successful week that saw the corps break 70 points more than two weeks earlier than it did a year ago.
In sixth place, Music City earned a score of 63.150 marking an improvement of just over a point from Friday night in Lexington.
“We were really anxious to come onto this field,” Music City assistant drum major Scott Smith said. “This is probably one of the biggest stadiums we’ve been in so far. It was loud, it was big, the audience loved it.”
In its second competitive performance of the season, Jersey Surf placed seventh with a score of 56.800, but defeated Music City by four tenths of a point in the brass caption.
“This is our second show on the road, and I can say this is a big improvement from our first show,” Jersey Surf drum major Dante Salina said. “I’m very pleased.”
Heat WaveIn its 2018 debut, Cape Coral, Florida’s Heat Wave earned a score of 49.300 as the only Open Class corps in attendance in Orlando.
“We could definitely tell the energy from the crowd pushed everyone through the performance,” drum major Tyler Lukasik said.
As major regional events loom throughout the next several weekends, all eight of Sunday’s corps will head just north to Georgia for upcoming events this week.