ALLENTOWN, Pennsylvania — At one of the DCI Tour’s signature east coast events, one of the activity’s longest-standing east coast competitors topped the Saturday night leaderboard.
Boston Crusaders, a corps with its sights set on the 2025 DCI World Championship title, picked up a key victory on the road to Indianapolis, earning first out of a lineup of 10 World Class corps at the second of two nights of DCI Eastern Classic competition.
View scores from the DCI Eastern Classic (Saturday)
After a night that saw the Bluecoats post the second-highest score ever recorded at iconic J. Birney Crum Stadium, the Crusaders added their own bit of history, moving into the third-highest all-time slot, 0.15 points ahead of the 2005 Cadets’ score of 96.225.
1. Boston Crusaders » 96.375
2. Santa Clara Vanguard » 95.400
Boston Crusaders and Santa Clara Vanguard, Saturday’s top-two scoring corps, have been no strangers with one another this season, competing head-to-head 10 times prior to Allentown, with all 10 being won by the Crusaders.
Saturday, the margin between the two was noticeably closer than what it’s been throughout the season — 0.975 points, as compared to an average margin of 1.7 — but caption scores wavered between the two. Boston Crusaders won all three overall captions (General Effect, Visual, Music), but fell behind Carolina Crown in Music Analysis and Santa Clara Vanguard in Visual Analysis.
3. Carolina Crown » 93.450
4. Mandarins » 91.800
5. The Cavaliers » 89.750
Carolina Crown, which has most closely scored with Phantom Regiment this season (who performed Friday in Allentown), scored just under two points behind Vanguard, and earned a substantial lead over Mandarins thanks most notably to strong scores in the Music captions.
Mandarins continue to impress on the 2025 DCI Tour. The corps ranked ahead of Carolina Crown in Color Guard, and scored on par with its 2023 Allentown score of 91.988. Mandarins did not record a score in Allentown in 2024 due to a weather cancellation.
As for The Cavaliers, most of the corps with which the Rosemont, Illinois ensemble has competed most closely this summer appeared in Allentown on Friday night. That said, the Green Machine still made some competitive waves at Saturday’s event, scoring as high as third in percussion.
6. Spirit of Atlanta » 84.775
7. Madison Scouts » 84.638
8. The Academy » 81.475
9. Crossmen » 81.325
10. Genesis » 77.450
Prior to Saturday night, Madison Scouts and Spirit of Atlanta hadn’t competed head-to-head since midseason Texas events, both of which saw the Scouts earn an edge — by 1.663 points in San Antonio, followed by 1.2 in Bedford.
Saturday in Allentown, however, Spirit scored ahead of the Scouts for the first time this season, earning a slim lead of just 0.137 points on the wings of a substantial lead in Total Music. The Wisconsin corps, though, held advantages in General Effect and Total Visual.
For Crossmen and The Academy, recent competitive spreads between the two have fluctuated; Crossmen outscored the Arizona corps by 1.538 July 19 in San Antonio, just 0.35 July 22 in McKinney, Texas, back up to 1.25 July 27 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and down to 0.45 just two nights later in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
Saturday, The Academy nabbed the higher score, finishing ahead of Crossmen by 0.15 points largely due to its scores in General Effect. Crossmen held strong results in the Music captions.
Genesis rounded out Saturday’s lineup with a final tally of 77.450, which was an improvement from the corps’ 2024 Allentown score of 76.850.
For all 10 of Saturday’s competitors, a handful of upcoming events across Pennsylvania and Ohio will lead toward the DCI World Championships, August 7-9 in Indianapolis.
