Busy July Saturday yields wealth of competitive intrigue

Saturday, July 16 was the busiest day of DCI’s 50th anniversary season, with five events scheduled — four of which featured competitive results — across three time zones.

Take a quick look back at all of the competitive notes from a jam-packed Saturday of drum corps:

DCI MEMPHIS PRES. BY ULTIMATE DRILL BOOK | Memphis, TN

In what ended up being one of the most eye-catching competitive results of the night, Boston Crusaders (2nd, 85.700) closed its gap significantly with Carolina Crown (2st, 86.100), pulling to within 0.4 points of the Fort Mill, South Carolina corps.

While Crown — which is one of just two undefeated corps remaining on the 2022 DCI Tour — held miniscule leads in the visual and music captions, Boston Crusaders won percussion and color guard, and the two corps tied in general effect.

Carolina Crown is the only corps to currently own a head-to-head win over Bluecoats to date this summer; meanwhile, Boston Crusaders’ first and only meeting with the Canton, Ohio corps saw Bluecoats win by more than two points. The three will compete together for the first time Tuesday in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma.

Further down the recap, The Cadets (3rd, 82.050) remained within a handful of points of Boston Crusaders. Crossmen (4th, 75.900) and Music City (5th, 72.100) rounded out the ranking.

While the race between Crossmen and Music City wasn’t particularly tight, the Nashville corps continues to put up elevated numbers from recent years. 2019 saw Crossmen and Music City separated by anywhere between nine and 12 points, and by mid-July that same season, Music City’s scores hovered in the vicinity of 69 or 70; it didn’t reach 72 points until July 27.

MEMPHIS SCORES

WHITEWATER CLASSIC | Whitewater, WI

One of Madison Scouts’ home events, located at the site of DCI’s inaugural championship events in 1972 and 1973, featured plenty of competitive intrigue amongst a group of midwestern corps.

Bluecoats topped the field of five competing World Class ensembles with a score of 85.000; in doing so, the Canton, Ohio corps became the 2022 DCI Tour’s first to break 85 points, by just about an hour, when Memphis scores were logged.

The night’s most intriguing competitive race, arguably, featured Blue Stars (2nd, 81.150) and Phantom Regiment (3rd, 79.400). As recently as July 10, Blue Stars had opened up a lead of more than 2.5 points over the corps’ Illinois-based opponent, but Regiment narrowed that gap in Whitewater to 1.75.

Meanwhile, Colts’ (4th, 75.850) percussion section continued its strong recent trends, earning second in the percussion caption behind only Bluecoats.

The Madison Scouts’ (5th, 73.100) highlight on the scoresheet was a fourth-place finish in the visual proficiency caption, a tenth above the Colts.

Following COVID protocols, The Cavaliers performed a standstill exhibition in Whitewater. The corps’ last score was recorded on July 6 in Ankeny, Iowa.

WHITEWATER SCORES

DRUMS ALONG THE ROCKIES | Fort Collins, CO

Blue Devils became the fourth and final corps of the day to earn 85 points or more, earning an eighth-consecutive victory with a score of 85.950 and keeping its recent lead of more than two points over Santa Clara Vanguard. With a tally of 83.350, the Santa Clara corps earned Saturday’s fifth-highest score.

Mandarins came painfully close to 80 points with a score of 79.800, but kept its historically tight margin behind Santa Clara Vanguard, scoring within 3.55.

Meanwhile, Blue Knights (4th) broke 75 points, The Academy (6th) broke 70, Genesis (7th) made its 2022 debut with a score of 65.450, and Troopers (5th, 72.400) scored ahead of Blue Knights in percussion. The Battalion represented the Open Class division with a score of 60.000.

FORT COLLINS SCORES

GOLD SHOWCASE | Vista, CA

Vanguard Cadets (1st, 71.800) made arguably the biggest competitive movement of the day, jumping ahead of Blue Devils B for the first time this season. Blue Devils B had outscored Vanguard Cadets by 1.5 or more points in the two corps’ three previous head-to-head meetings.

The majority of Vanguard Cadets’ victory was due to a solid lead in the general effect caption; Blue Devils B earned top scores in music.

Columbians — which opened up its 2022 campaign with the corps’ all-time high score and hasn’t looked back since — scored 66.050 in third place. The Washington corps will perform four times on the 2022 DCI Tour, as it looks to close in on its first ever 70-point score. Golden Empire finished not far behind in fourth place, with a final mark of 62.900.

Six points separated the final three corps in the deep Open Class Vista lineup, with Les Stentors (5th, 55.500), Blue Devils C (6th, 52.550) and Impulse (7th, 49.900) rounding out the pack. Impulse scored ahead of Blue Devils C in general effect, and earned fifth place in music, but Blue Devils C’s visual scores accounted for the corps’ head-to-head lead.

Gold, which has spent the last couple of weeks scoring in the vicinity of Blue Devils B and Vanguard Cadets, performed a standstill due to COVID mitigation protocols.

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