The DCI Southwestern Championship on Saturday, July 23, was the first time all but one of the 23 World Class corps got together at the same time this year. (Jersey Surf will be at the DCI Southeastern Championship next week in Atlanta.)



Please note that when looking at the scoring recaps, all judges' sheets, including General Effect, are divided in half before being added toward the final score. This is due to the use of two Visual Effect and two Music Effect judges. Keep in mind, however, the Effect averages are not divided in half before being added to the final score, while all the other captions are. Therefore, when it is mentioned that one corps' caption (other than GE) was 0.80 down to another corps' caption score, it really means that spread was worth 0.40 in the final overall score.



Once again, The Cavaliers (1st-91.05) finished on top, as the corps has done in all shows but the first one of the season. However, other corps are right behind, with Blue Devils, just 0.10 down, closing the gap from 1.45 a week earlier at DCI Minnesota. As opposed to the six of eight captions won in Minneapolis, the Cavaliers only won Color Guard and Music Ensemble in San Antonio. Visual Ensemble and Brass both took 3rd, the same two captions that the corps didn't win last week, falling one position in both captions. The corps was 2nd in all other captions.



Blue Devils (2nd-90.95) added exactly 5.00 to their score from Minneapolis, winning Visual Performance, Visual Ensemble and Percussion. (The corps won no captions the week before.) Music Ensemble and Color Guard took 2nd and both General Effect captions (Visual and Music) placed 3rd, with Music Effect tying with Carolina Crown. Brass finished in 4th, 0.50 under Crown.



The Cadets (3rd-90.40) won both Effect captions and took 2nd in Visual Ensemble and Brass. 3rd place finishes in Music Ensemble and Percussion kept the corps in the running, but 4th in Visual Performance (0.60 down to BD and 0.30 down to the Cavaliers) and 17.6 in Color Guard (a full 1.0 down to the Cavaliers) accounted for a total of a 0.65 deficit to the Green Machine; (remember that all but GE is divided in half). If either of those scores had matched the Cavaliers' scores in those captions, the two corps would have tied.



Carolina Crown (4th-89.55) won Brass by 0.30 over 2nd place Cadets, but the only remaining captions to place as high as 3rd was Visual Performance and a tie with BD in Music Effect. Visual Effect was 4th, as was Color Guard, Music Ensemble and Percussion. Visual Ensemble finished in 5th, two placements down from where it was at in Minneapolis. However, remember in Minneapolis, both Color Guard and Percussion placed 6th.



Phantom Regiment (5th-87.40) once again finished 7th in Percussion. Their 8th place finish in Visual Ensemble from a week ago moved all the way up to 4th, with the 11th place Composition sub-caption also moving up to 4th. Color Guard was the highest position in 3rd. Both Effect captions placed 5th (Music Effect tied Bluecoats) and Visual Performance, Brass and Music Ensemble all ended in 6th.



Bluecoats (6th-86.60) were somewhat hurt by low placements in visual captions; Visual Effect took 9th and Color Guard took a stunning 10th. Visual Performance was 5th, as was the tie for Music Effect with Phantom Regiment, and Visual Ensemble placed 7th. Percussion was 6th and both Brass and Music Ensemble took 5th.



Santa Clara Vanguard (7th-86.15) placed highest in Percussion, which finished in 5th, down from 3rd the previous week. Visual Ensemble and Color Guard finished 6th, and Visual Effect was tied with the Madison Scouts for 6th. Visual Performance and Music Ensemble placed 7th, with Brass in 8th and Music Effect the lowest caption in 9th.



Boston Crusaders (8th-84.55) was 7th in Music Effect, 8th in Visual Ensemble, Color Guard and Music Ensemble, 9th in Percussion and Visual Performance, and 10th in Visual Effect and Brass.



Madison Scouts (9th-83.80) slipped one position from Minneapolis despite tying for 6th in Visual Effect and taking 7th in Color Guard and Brass, and 8th in Music Effect. Visual Ensemble and Music Ensemble placed 10th, and both Visual Performance and Percussion finished in 11th. Madison received a 0.20 penalty for going overtime.



Blue Knights (tie 10th-82.90) also tied for 10th in Music Effect with Blue Stars and took 10th in Visual Performance and Percussion, 9th in Visual Ensemble and Color Guard, 8th in Visual Effect, and 11th in Brass and Music Ensemble.



Blue Stars (tie 10th-82.90) placed 8th in Visual Performance and Percussion, 9th in Music Ensemble and Brass, tied for 10th in Music Effect, and placed 11th in Visual Effect, Visual Ensemble and Color Guard.



Spirit of Atlanta (12th-79.05) took 12th in Visual Effect, Brass and Percussion, and 14th in all five other captions, tying with Glassmen in Music Effect.



Glassmen (13th-78.60) took 12th in all three Visual captions, 13th in Percussion, 14th in Brass and Music Effect (tying with Spirit of Atlanta), tied for 15th in Visual Effect, and took 16th in Music Ensemble.



Troopers (14th-78.55) slipped out of the top-12 from Minneapolis by finishing 12th in Music Effect, 16th in Color Guard and Percussion and 13th in everything else, tying for 13th in Visual Effect.



The Academy (15th-77.75) took 12th in Music Ensemble and 13th in both Effect captions, tying with Troopers in Visual Effect. Percussion was 14th, Brass 16th, Visual Performance and Color Guard 17th, and Visual Ensemble 18th.



Colts (16th-76.55) took 13th in Color Guard, 15th in Visual Performance and all three Music captions, 16th in Music Effect (tie) and Visual Ensemble, and 17th in Visual Effect.



Crossmen (17th-75.80) were 15th or 16th in all Effect and Visual captions and 17th or 18th in all three Music captions.



Pacific Crest (18th-73.30) was 17th in Visual Ensemble, 19th in Music Ensemble, 20th in Percussion and 18th in the four remaining captions.



Teal Sound (19th-70.65) was 17th in Percussion, 18th in Music Ensemble, 19th in Visual Performance and Color Guard, 20th in both Effect captions and Brass, and 21st in Visual Ensemble.



Mandarins (20th-70.45) were 19th or 20th in every caption except for 21st in Color Guard.

Cascades (21st-68.45) took 20th in Visual Ensemble and Color Guard, 22nd in Visual Effect and 21st in all other captions.



Pioneer (22nd-66.00) was 21st in Visual Effect and 22nd in all other captions.

In Open Class, Revolution (1st-75.20) took 1st in every caption.



Genesis (2nd-71.00) placed 2nd in Music Effect, Visual Performance, Visual Ensemble, Brass and Music Ensemble, and 3rd in Visual Effect, Color Guard and Percussion.



Forte (3rd-67.35) placed 2nd in all captions in which Genesis was 3rd, and 3rd in all captions in which Genesis was 2nd.



Judges for the DCI Southwestern Championship were as follows: Chief Judge – Gary Markham, Visual Effect – Marie Czapinski and Frank Morris, Music Effect – John Bell and Glenn Fugett, Visual Performance – Bruce Jones, Visual Ensemble – Tim Ochran, Color Guard – Mickey Kelley, Brass Performance – Dave McGrath, Ensemble Music – Joe Allison and Percussion – J.J. Pipitone.



View the complete scoring recap from San Antonio.