Competitive Breakdown of Friday's Open and World Semis

Competitive Breakdown of Friday's Open and World Semis

Take an in-depth look at the major competitive notes from Open and World Class semifinals after a jam-packed day of performances at UD Arena.

Apr 12, 2019 by Jeff Griffith
Competitive Breakdown of Friday's Open and World Semis
With one more day remaining at the 2019 WGI Percussion World Championships, A Class is in the books, and all Open and World Classes have been narrowed to 15 finalists apiece.

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With one more day remaining at the 2019 WGI Percussion World Championships, A Class is in the books, and all Open and World Classes have been narrowed to 15 finalists apiece.

Take a look back at all the major competitive notes from Friday at UD Arena:

INDEPENDENT WORLD SEMIFINALS

First off, the two most notable developments happened at the top. Broken City (98.225) not only passed Pulse Percussion (97.525) for the lead, it flew ahead, erasing a 0.3-point deficit to open up a lead of 0.7. If that advantage holds, Broken City will take home its very first gold medal tomorrow night.

In third and fourth place, no leapfrogging happened, but Music City Mystique (96.975) saw its lead over Rhythm X (96.775) shrink all the way from more than a point to just two tenths. RCC (95.525) remained in fifth by a solid margin. 

POW Percussion (91.575) made moves today, sneaking into eighth place ahead of George Mason University (91.575), which also continued to hold a tight lead over Infinity (91.475). 

Lastly, the cut-off for finals was about as close as could be, with Atlanta Quest (87.925) earning the 15th and final spot over Vessel (87.813) by just .112.

View the full schedule for Saturday’s PIW Finals

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SCHOLASTIC WORLD SEMIFINALS

The top three in this class remain intact, in order, from Thursday, as Chino Hills (96.788), Arcadia (95.875) and Dartmouth (94.813) hold down the medalist positions through two days of competitions.

It’s the next group of four where there was plenty of movement. Let’s refresh:

4th â€” Burleson Centennial → Avon (94.113)
5th — Etiwanda → Ayala (93.075)
6th — Ayala → Burleson Centennial (93.063)
7th — Avon → Etiwanda (92.550)

Burleson Centennial is in just its second year of PSW compeition, and is basically tied for fifth, after taking sixth in 2018.

The rest of the PSW pack didn’t see much movement, other than Walled Lake Central (84.788) jumping ahead of Cesar E. Chavez (84.075) by just over half a point to nab the last spot in finals in 15th. 

View the full schedule for Saturday’s PSW Finals

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INDEPENDENT OPEN SEMIFINALS

For the second night in a row, it’s Bakersfield College (96.425) with a strong lead over the pack. The most interesting note at the top of the PIO results, though, is an airtight, four-group race for second, between Spirit (95.738), Violet Crown (95.500), Infinity 2 (95.375), and Matrix Open (95.125). It’ll be really interesting to see how that quartet shakes out tomorrow. 

This group — like every class, it seems — also had a really close photo-finish for the 15th spot in finals. 14th and 16th were separated by just over four tenths of a point, as Gold (88.050) and FIU (87.813) snuck in while River City Rhythm (87.638) missed out by just 0.175. 

View the full schedule for Saturday’s PIO Finals

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SCHOLASTIC OPEN SEMIFINALS

In one of the biggest one-day movements I’ve ever seen, Clear Brook â€” last year’s PSO champion — stormed from last in its entire round to second overall with a score of 93.300, second only to Sparkman’s 94.150. 

Sparkman entered the day with a commanding lead over the field, but now has Clear Brook, Norwalk (92.938) and Los Alamitos (92.938) nipping at its heels. 

This group was incredibly close yesterday, and the race for finalist spots followed suit, as Belleville East (88.625) and Trumbull (88.350) edged out Pace (88.213) and Mt. Juliet (88.150) each by less than a quarter of a point for 14th and 15th respectively.

View the full schedule for Saturday’s PSO Finals

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To read about all of the finals action from Friday night in Scholastic A and Independent A, check out the full A Class Finals live blog.