Undefeated Bluecoats near 96, Colts continue rise Friday in Allentown

With just over a week remaining until the 2024 DCI World Champion is crowned, Bluecoats remain untouched across the season’s leaderboard.

The Canton, Ohio corps’ undefeated campaign earned another feather in its cap at Friday’s edition of the DCI Eastern Classic. Bluecoats notched a top score of 95.900 and earned a margin of victory of 1.25 points over a field of 10 World Class competitors.

View scores from the DCI Eastern Classic (Friday)

 

1. Bluecoats » 95.900
2. Blue Devils » 94.650 

Bluecoats logged the corps’ 14th-consecutive first-place finish, with its head-to-head advantage of 1.25 points over Blue Devils serving as a slight increase from the two corps’ 0.975-point margin Tuesday in Newark, Delaware. 

At seven head-to-head meetings prior to Friday night, Bluecoats’ average margin of victory over Blue Devils was 1.15 points. Leads in those contests have been as large as 1.7 and as small as 0.9. 
 
While Bluecoats earned first-place marks in the vast majority of captions, Blue Devils topped the charts in color guard.

 

3. Colts » 88.000
4. The Cavaliers » 86.675

Colts posted an impressive competitive showing Friday night, outscoring The Cavaliers in every caption and finishing ahead of the Rosemont, Illinois corps overall for just the second time in its history. 

Allentown marked the 12th head-to-head meeting of Colts and The Cavaliers this season. Aside from one tie, the Green Machine earned the higher score at the first 10 of those meetings, but Colts earned an advantage of 0.45 points July 31 in Salem, Virginia, and extended that lead drastically to 1.325 points Friday night.  

 

5. Madison Scouts » 84.900
6. Pacific Crest » 83.275
7. Blue Knights » 83.250

Madison Scouts, Blue Knights, and Pacific Crest have all been named as corps within striking distance, based on historic statistical trends, of the Top 12 finalist cutoff at the upcoming DCI World Championship. 

The Scouts, who have held the advantage in that race at several recent events, maintained a substantial cushion thanks to especially strong scores in the visual captions. 

The margin between Blue Knights and Pacific Crest was once again razor-thin, just 0.025 on Friday night. Most recently, the Denver corps led by 0.2 points, July 28 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. In Allentown, Pacific Crest earned slim leads in general effect and total visual, while Blue Knights ousted the southern California corps in music despite a disadvantage in percussion.

 

8. The Academy » 80.050
9. Music City » 79.725
10. Genesis » 76.850

It’s been a closely contested summer for The Academy and Music City, with the Arizona corps earning a slim lead in the latest installment. 

The two had only met head-to-head twice prior to Allentown, but were tied in their most recent meeting, July 23 in Mesquite, Texas. 

While Music City earned a lead of 0.45 points in general effect, The Academy’s Friday night advantage was nearly-equal parts built by stronger scores in the music (0.325 ahead of Music City) and visual (0.45 ahead) captions. 

Genesis landed in 10th at the first night of competition in Allentown, taking 10th in all captions.

11 more World Class corps will take the field at iconic J. Birney Crum Stadium Saturday night for the DCI Eastern Classic presented by DeMoulin Bros. & Co. 

View the 2024 DCI Tour Schedule