Oregon corps earns silver at Open Class finals

Published 5:00 pm Tuesday, August 9, 2011

By KATHLEEN?STRECKER

The Daily Astorian

MICHIGAN CITY, Ind. The massive thunderstorm that hit northern Indiana Monday night may have rattled more than just windowpanes. 

Lightning and heavy rain forced the cancellation of the preliminary round of competition in the Drum Corps International Open Class finals, throwing a curve into the top corps’ rehearsal modes and shaking up the Oregon Crusaders’ run at the title over current champions Blue Devils B.

The Crusaders, who held the first-place spot coming into finals week,  performed their show, “The Blue Hour,” to packed stands at Ames Field in Michigan City, where 18 Open and International Class corps competed for the top honors.

The lack of a preliminary round meant that the Crusaders would have only one shot to hold onto their lead. Three corps have battled for first in the rankings all season: OC, BDB and the Santa Clara Vanguard Cadets. 

SCVC won the award for Best Visual of the night and took home the bronze medal with a score of 94.20.

The Crusaders won Best Brass and notched the highest score in the organization’s history, 94.70, to win second place. 

In a nod to the Crusaders’ progress over the past year and their consistently high-quality shows, Corps Director Mike Quillen of McMinnville was named Open Class Director of the Year. The award is voted on by all the directors in the division. 

The Blue Devils B claimed their third consecutive championship, capturing the judges’ favor with a score of 95.00, as well as the Best Percussion and Best General Effect awards. 

“Everybody’s obviously a little upset,” said Masen Bowers, 21, of Portland, who graduated from Astoria High School in 2008 and is marching his fifth – and final – season with the corps.

“But we did our best. We may not have gotten where we wanted to … we had a higher goal in mind – World Class. To defend our title in World Class.”

A change to the structure of finals week this year will allow OC to prove their merit once, and possibly twice, more. The upper-division World Class preliminaries, previously reserved only for the largest and most well-established corps, is now open to all groups. This means that an Open Class corps who scores well in Thursday’s preliminaries could possibly advance to the World Class semifinals Friday among the top 25 corps overall. 

“We created this show to be a World Class level show,” said Quillen. “We’re very excited to see it scored against other World Class shows.”

The potential still exists for OC to outscore their rivals BDB in the World Class competition, which is held in Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.

“I’m excited that they get to feel the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, and take that to fuel their next performances,” said Travis Moddison, OC brass caption head. 

Eight Astoria youths are members of the Oregon Crusaders: Bowers, James Strecker, Scottie Steele, James Magee, Anderue Buckingham, Randall Olson, D’len Thomasian and Spencer Johnston. 

The drum corps activity is open to all youths up to age 21 who play a brass or percussion instrument or perform with flags and other visual equipment. Auditions are held in the fall and rehearsal camps take place throughout the winter and spring. Corps spend the summer traveling by bus across the country to compete at several shows per week until they all converge in Indianapolis for finals.