Spartans top prelims leaderboard, Colt Cadets and Raiders make Finals returns

MARION, Ind. -— Monday at the DCI Open Class World Championship Prelims has often served as a litmus test for the drum corps universe.

After weeks spread across the country, more than a dozen Open Class corps were on one stage. Finally.

In years past, the Monday before Indianapolis has turned into the most important Open Class scoreboard. The standings are deep and, most importantly, they’re thorough. Albeit just a day before the Open Class Finals, the season begins to shuffle itself out with head-to-head standings from every corps.

Yet, at the top on Monday, there was no change.

Just as they have all season, Spartans nabbed top prize amongst their Open Class competitors in dominant fashion. The corps from Nashua, New Hampshire took home every caption but percussion, falling just under two-tenths of a point shy of 80.

 1. Spartans » 79.825
 2. Gold » 78.450
 3. Legends » 77.550

In its fourth meeting with Spartans, Gold made up ground on the Open Class top dog, cutting a margin of 1.6 points on Saturday in Wisconsin, down to 1.375, thanks to an overall win in percussion.

After their first-ever bronze medal in 2018, the Oceanside, California corps is in position for another all-time best finish.

“Honestly, we’ve been working really hard, so for us to get out here and put on a really good show, for me especially, it was really exciting,” Kang said. “A run like that sure does boost our confidence going into tomorrow.”

Rounding out the top three, Legends held a more than three-point lead over its next closest competitor, putting the Kalamazoo corps in position to return to medalist status for the first time since 2017.

 4. Southwind » 74.350
 5. Louisiana Stars » 73.875

With its output Monday night, Southwind put itself in a strong position to also earn its best finish since returning to the DCI World Championships in 2017.

The Alabama corps finished 10th at 2018’s Open Class Finals, making its 2019 showing potentially one of the biggest improvements across the entire DCI landscape, if not the biggest.

“I thought that was a great performance. The crowd brought it, we brought it to the crowd,” said Southwind drum major Ernad Sisec. “The goals are just to keep getting better, keep climbing and just to have fun as the season ends.”

Southwind’s race with Louisiana Stars has been close all year, but the Alabama corps pushed ahead Monday night for the first time since its 2019 debut on July 8.

While Louisiana Stars scored behind 7th Regiment in the visual caption, the Louisiana corps earned a commanding advantage in general effect to separate itself from its closest competitors.

If the corps’ lead of nearly a point over the Connecticut corps holds in Tuesday’s Finals, 2019 would mark Louisiana Stars’ best finish in six years as an Open Class corps.

“I thought that was great, probably one of our best runs yet,” Louisiana Stars drum major Rebekah Hinson said. “We have always said, ‘This is one of the best groups that we’ve had.’ The energy (is high), and they always have a positive attitude.”

 6. 7th Regiment » 72.900
 7. River City Rhythm » 72.825
 8. Guardians » 72.200
 9. Golden Empire » 71.225

After finishing tied with Guardians on Saturday in Ohio, 7th Regiment opened up a lead and finished just a hair above River City Rhythm in one of the tighter three-corps races of the day.

7th Regiment finished behind both corps in general effect and a hair behind RCR in music, its standout visual scores — which came in ahead of Louisiana Stars — made the difference.

“I’m really excited about what they’ve done,” 7th Regiment drum major Serenity Morris said. “They’ve just taken a show with a beautiful concept and an absolute beautiful journey through the vignettes that’s allowed them to showcase their talent. I’m so happy the show has enveloped all the things they can do.”

After finishing more than six points behind Guardians at the end of last season, Golden Empire scored within a point of the Houston corps thanks to a head-to-head win in the visual caption.

“We've been focusing a lot recently on not only performing on the technical standpoint but also inserting all of the energy and the emotion that the show has,” Golden Empire drum major Caleb Marroquin said. “We’ve been having a great time out here.”

 10. Shadow » 67.275
 11. Colt Cadets » 64.075
 12. Raiders » 62.725

After making its Open Class Finals debut last season, Shadow made it back-to-back years and jumped from last year’s 12th-place finish to a firm position in 10th place. The corps put up impressive numbers in percussion, good enough for a fifth-place finish.

Colt Cadets earned their first trip to the Finals since 2015 on the wings of impressive music scores. The Dubuque corps made up for a head-to-head defeat in general effect against Les Stentors with a close lead in visual and a commanding advantage in music, namely the brass subcaption.

“I thought it was really great,” Colt Cadets’ drum major Andrew Smits said.”We really stepped it up and had a lot of good focused energy instead of unnecessary, rugged energy. Our goals as a corps is just to have the best show we can.”

By a rail-thin margin of just 0.075, Raiders locked up the last spot among the top-12 groups that will compete in Tuesday’s DCI Open Class World Championship Finals, marking the New Jersey corps’ return to the coveted event after missing out in 2018.

 13. Les Stentors » 62.650
 14. Heat Wave » 62.550

In the Canadian corps’ first trip to the DCI World Championships since 2017, Les Stentors improved upon that year’s Open Class Prelims output by a resounding 7.45 points, and scored ahead of Raiders and Colt Cadets in general effect.

“I’m very proud of everything that we’ve been doing,” Les Stentors drum major Jade Banta said. “We’ve had trumpet players who are picking up the instrument for the first time and really learning on the fly. I’m really proud of the fact they were able to take a skill they’re learning and put it on something like DCI.”

Despite missing out on the Top 12, Heat Wave also improved its showing from this time a year ago — its first trip ever to the Open Class World Championships — by 1.6 points. The Florida corps missed out on the Finals cutoff by less than a quarter of a point, after having been 3.45 points from the 12th spot in 2018.

“It was fantastic, the energy was great,” Heat Wave drum major Matthew Carstensen said. “It’s definitely a great year for the corps. We’ve done better than we’ve ever done before scoring-wise. We’re feeling really good about this performance.”

Hailing from Arklow, County Wicklow, Ireland, International Class corps Inbhear Mor also performed on Monday night in exhibition.

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