Carolina Gold, Reading Buccaneers are 2018 DCA World Champions

The Reading Buccaneers were once again good enough for gold, taking the top spot at Sunday’s Drum Corps Associates (DCA) World Championship Finals at STA Stadium in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.

The win marks back-to-back titles for the all-age drum and bugle corps juggernaut, which has taken the gold medal at the annual Labor Day Weekend competition an unprecedented 12 times over the last 15 years.

With a final score of 98.000, the Buccaneers stayed nearly two points ahead of the nearest competition all weekend, while also securing top honors for its scores in the brass, visual, total effect and percussion captions.

 

In a come-from-behind effort, Allentown, Pennsylvania’s Cadets2 overcame a more than one-point deficit after Saturday’s Prelims competition, to take the silver medal over Atlanta CV 96.050 to 95.625. Mirroring the honor received by Cadets drum major Claire Albrecht at the Drum Corps International World Championship Finals in August, Cadets2 drum major Armon Raygani received the award for best DCA Open Class drum major at Sunday’s event.

View all scores from the DCA World Championship Finals

Keeping the Buccaneers from a clean sweep of the caption awards, Morris County, New Jersey’s Fusion Core took home the high color guard award while finishing in fourth place overall with a score of 92.875.

Earning fourth-place finishes in overall music and effect on the judges’ sheets, the Bushwackers from Princeton, New Jersey impressively jumped two spots from the Prelims competition to finish in fifth place overall with a score of 92.725 over the Caballeros (6th, 91.950) and White Sabers (7th, 91.738).

Winning back-to-back Class A titles at the DCA World Championships in 2016 and 2017, Cincinnati Tradition finished in 8th place with a score of 86.400 in its first season in the Open Class division.

The Hurricanes (9th, 85.275), Sunrisers (10th, 80.775) and Chops Inc. (11th, 77.500) rounded out DCA’s Open Class finalist corps.

Nearly deadlocked with the Govenaires after Saturday’s preliminary competition, Raleigh, North Carolina’s Carolina Gold managed to edge ahead of the St. Peter, Minnesota drum corps on Sunday to capture its first gold medal since 2012 with a score of 82.550. Competing the last five years as an Open Class unit, Gold’s return to DCA’s A Class division also yielded a clean sweep of the caption awards for color guard, brass, visual, total effect and percussion.

Marking the corps’ third-straight silver medal finish, Govenaires earned a score of 80.650, while Scranton, Pennsylvania’s Skyliners (3rd, 79.750) finished just under a point behind.

Adding an international flair to this year’s DCA World Championship Finals, Cadence from Surrey County, England, made its debut in the United States with a score of 77.975 for fourth place.

Order tickets to the 2019 DCA World Championships in Williamsport

2018 DCA World Championship Finals awards ceremony