The 2018 Texas Tour is on its last legs this week as some corps make their way to Mesquite, Texas, tonight for the final show in the Lone Star State. However, the most exciting part of Texas Tour always falls on Saturday during the Southwestern Championships in the Alamodome.

Temperatures outside were near record-breaking while scores inside were reaching all-time highs. Santa Clara Vanguard pulled out their first-ever win of the DCI Southwestern Championships, maintaining their lead over Bluecoats and Blue Devils for the third time in a week.

Blue Stars and Mandarins continue to climb through the ranks with Blue Stars nipping at BK's heels and Mandarins within striking distance of a single-digits placement.

Also, the Boston Crusaders' new staff and rejuvenated membership have really started to pay off with a big win in the color guard caption—they took first.

Topping The Charts

Like I said before, Santa Clara Vanguard earned their first ever win at the Southwestern Championships over the weekend with an extremely high score.

In fact, SCV's score on Saturday topped even the Blue Devils' score at San Antonio in 2014, the year they broke the record at DCI finals with a 99.65. Now, we're not going to go saying that SCV is going to break the high score of 99.65 yet. Realistically, 99.65 is going to be an incredibly difficult score to top ever, due to the very special circumstances of 2014's end of the season.

However, SCV is sitting pretty in first with a gap of 1.350 over the Concord Blue Devils. Having a tight race between a very strong Bluecoats corps and the always impressive Blue Devils for second place does help push scores up for the first place if SCV can continue their momentum until August 11. 

Oh yeah, Carolina Crown is knocking on the Bluecoats' backdoor too, making the fight for a medal at World Championships a DCI fan's dream.

Movin' On Up

Blue Stars and Mandarins were two corps that saw their hard work pay off exponentially in San Antonio. Blue Stars continued their climb with their catchy "The Carpenters"-based show, "The Once And Future Carpenter."

Blue Stars finished the night in ninth place overall, but their visual program had a standout performance. In visual proficiency, visual analysis, and color guard: the corps placed in ninth, seventh, and seventh accordingly. This put them ahead of Blue Knights, The Cadets, and Phantom Regiment—three corps that Blue Stars have to beat across the captions if they want to hold their spot in the top 10.

Mandarins also saw success under the dome on Saturday with their 11th-place finish. All eyes are on the Mandarins guard as they attempt to establish themselves as one of the strongest color guard programs in DCI this summer, and the numbers reflected that. The section placed ninth in San Antonio over two corps that beat them: Phantom Regiment and Blue Knights.