The Cadets
As the second night of DCI Eastern Classic competition wrapped up in Allentown, Pennsylvania on Saturday, it was members of the Cadets who emerged victorious in front of a hometown crowd at J. Birney Crum Stadium.
 
"We've been here for about 10 years now, and it's always good to be back," said Cadets director George Hopkins about the corps' adopted hometown. "Allentown holds a lot of history, and a lot of memories for us at the Cadets."
 
With their performance of "Promise: An American Portrait," the Cadets earned their highest score to date, 95.150.
 
"We've been doing well right out the gate this season, but it's always fun to watch the kids' confidence levels build as they really grow into the uniform," Hopkins said. "Now we're getting ready to go out there next Thursday night and show the people what we're up to."

Bluecoats
As the Cadets get ready for next week's World Championships in Indianapolis, they'll no doubt be keeping an eye on the Bluecoats who finished in second place in Allentown with a score of 94.900, just a quarter of a point behind them. It's the closest the two corps have finished all summer. The corps from Canton had several strong areas on the score sheets on Saturday, including first-place finishes in overall General Effect and overall Music. Bluecoats also finished first in the brass and percussion captions.
 
Carolina Crown finished in third place overall with a score of 93.425. Crown finished third in the brass caption behind both the Cadets and Bluecoats, which has been the corps' strong suit for much of the summer.

Madison Scouts
The Cavaliers (4th, 91.975) were able to outscore their all-male counterparts, the Madison Scouts (5th, 86.900), by a handful of points.
 
Scouts drum major Eric Perry believes his corps has been showing steady improvement as the Drum Corps International Tour nears its end. "We've been looking forward to this Allentown show all week, and tonight the work really paid off," Perry said.

Crossmen
Crossmen (6th, 85.425), Troopers (7th, 83.800), Spirit of Atlanta (8th, 80.750), The Academy (9th, 79.825), Mandarins (10th, 75.975) and Jersey Surf (11th, 75.000) all delivered strong performances as they all had their chance to perform for a drum corps savvy crowd at historic J. Birney Crum Stadium.
 
"Tonight was definitely one of our better performances," said Mandarins color guard captain Evaleen Nambo. "The audience is so engaged and they all really love drum corps here."
 
In just a few short days, all 22 of Drum Corps International's World Class corps will descend upon Indianapolis for the DCI World Championship Prelims on Thursday, August 7, at Lucas Oil Stadium.

Allentown Day 2 Rundown:

Scores | Recap | Recap Roundup | Photos

Contributing to this report: Katy Nowak, Sid Unser