Boston surges into third place, Holy Name holds lead in Dallas

The second night of competition at the DCI Dallas presented by the North Texas Festival of Drums and Bugles event, featured the same set of World Class corps from Thursday's event in Houston, but with a few exciting placement mix ups in the results. The Holy Name Cadets took first place again, coming off of a big win in Houston. The corps earned a score of 89.750, which is one-and-a-half points higher than Thursday. "We took a step up from last night's show," said drum major Ben Pouncey. "The corps is really focused and driven. We came out tonight and things just worked really well for us." Coming in second place with a score of 89.150 was Carolina Crown. The corps continues to improve its scores nightly as well. Scoring 84.75, Boston Crusaders not only jumped two full points with their score in just one night, but also two places. Overtaking the Blue Stars and Phantom Regiment, the corps captured third place with an energetic performance, according to the corps' executive director, Tom Spataro. "The kids brought a lot of energy to the show tonight," said Spataro. "This was a nice stadium to perform in—the corps sounded loud, and it was a really intimate environment. The crowd got into what we were doing and the kids just felt really good when they got off the field. It feels good to be rewarded like that." Spataro said the corps will be working to add a couple new things to its program during a brief rehearsal on Saturday before heading over to the Alamodome for the DCI Southwestern Championship at the Alamodome. Another corps experiencing a recent competitive surge, the Blue Stars of La Crosse, Wis., treated the crowd to another strong performance that earned them a score of 84.650. The Blue Stars have made huge strides in recent years, first returning to DCI's World Class in 2006, and last year earning a place in the coveted top 12 at the World Championship Finals. "It's exciting that we are making more of a name for ourselves as an organization and inside the activity," he said. "But at the same time we're looking at the long term goals of the organization." Weinstein said that despite the corps' success in recent competitions, he wants to keep the group focused on themselves and what they need to do to prepare for the upcoming World Championships in Indianapolis. Phantom Regiment (84.550), Glassmen (81.700), Spirit (74.900), and Crossmen (74.550) took fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth places, respectively. Brian Hunt, an age-out member of the Crossmen's brass section said that he is enjoying his last year performing with the corps. While the season has had its ups and downs, he said, "I'm really just taking it all in and enjoying my time here." Hunt said the San Antonio-based corps is looking forward to returning to its hometown on Saturday for the Southwestern Championship. "They love us there. We're always able to turn it on and have a great performance at the Alamodome." Pacific Crest (9th, 72.350) and the Mandarins (10th, 71.750) rounded out the World Class competition Friday night in Dallas. "The way our schedule works, we're kind of fresh on tour," said fourth-year Pacific Crest snare drummer Rudy Torres who celebrated his 20th birthday on Friday. "Today's performance was about average to what we'd normally do in rehearsal … This is our first week of full-time touring, so we're still dealing with getting comfortable here and there." The DCI Dallas event was also a special day for the brand new all-age corps, Vigilantes, from Richardson, Texas whose members performed their first-ever field show at Wildcat-Ram Stadium. Vigilantes drum major Brittney Summers is an alum of the Bluecoats and the Cadets. She was one of the Cadets' drum majors in 2008. Summers said it wasn't her plan to jump straight into marching as a member of an all-age corps after her age-out year, but that she was convinced to join by her friend, the corps' brass caption head, Mike Rossi. "We've got 15-year olds with 55-year olds standing next to each other," she said. "It's really awesome to see the generations working together, and that's really what it's about. For us, it's about getting together on the weekends and having some fun putting together a show." Summers says that all of the Vigilantes members either have an affiliation with a family member who has participated in a Drum Corps International group or have marched as members of a DCI corps themselves. Friday's events in Houston and Dallas are the continuation of the DCI Southwestern Series presented by Jupiter Band Instruments. The series concludes on Saturday in San Antonio where 21 of the 22 World Class corps will go head to head for the very first time this season. One will ultimately be named the Southwestern Series Champion. View a complete recap of scores from day two of DCI Dallas. Fans not heading to the Alamodome can still catch all the action by logging into a live Webcast of the competition through the DCI Fan Network. The first corps steps off on Saturday at 4 p.m. CT. Learn more about this live Fan Network broadcast. Contributors: Chris Weber