After taking second place in the event’s Prelims portion, recent Bands of America Grand National Championship bronze medalist Blue Springs (MO) took first place at this weekend’s BOA Iowa Regional Championship, held at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls. 

Check out photos from all preliminary bands HERE!

Finals Results

Blue Springs’ win was incredibly slim, though. After trailing by more than two points in Prelims, the Missouri band jumped ahead of Rosemount (MN) by just a quarter of a point, outscoring the second-place finisher 82.850 to 82.600. 

The two bands tied in general effect and Rosemount earned a close win music performance, but Blue Springs’ visual performance scores made the majority of the difference. With its Prelims run, though, Rosemount took the title of AAA champion.

Rounding out the top three, Camdenton (MO) made an impressive statement, with a third-place score of 80.650, finishing ahead of one of last year’s Grand National finalists and Saturday’s AAAA winner, O’Fallon Township (fourth, 79.750) by a decent margin. For reference, Camdenton finished 33rd at 2018’s Grand Nationals, more than 10 points behind 12th-place O’Fallon Township in Semifinals competition.

The margin separating Camdenton and Blue Springs, 3.1 points, comes after the two were split by 20 points at 2018’s Grand National Semifinals. Camdenton also earned this weekend’s AA title.

Another close finish saw Marian Catholic (IL), the winningest band in BOA history, earn the last spot in the top five with a score of 76.850. Not far off, Lockport Township (IL) earned a tally of 76.300, while also topping Marian Catholic in music performance and tying its fellow Illinois band in visual performance. 

The next three bands were all separated by just one-tenth of a point, but that was largely due to a sizable penalty (1.2 points) that dropped seventh-place Lincoln (SD) to a score of 73.050. A deadlock for eighth place saw both Independence (IA) — Saturday’s "A" Class champion — and Nixa (MO) earn scores of 72.950. 

Class Awards

Rounding out the top 10, Blue Springs South (MO) earned a score of 71.500 in Finals but had actually earned seventh in Prelims. In the Prelims portion, it was Nixa who earned the 10th and final spot in Finals with a score of 71.100, holding off Morton (11th, 70.500) and Eastview (12th, 70.350) by less than a point each. 

Greendale (WI) also earned a mark of 69.900 in 13th, just over a point off of the cut line. A decent bit behind Greendale, Bellevue East (14th, 67.150) edged Marshall (15th, 66.900) despite a small penalty. 

The remainder of the recap saw a handful of pretty close races; Baldwin-Woodville (18th, 60.100) and Davenport Central (19th, 59.900) were split by just 0.2, Francis Howell North (20th, 56.900) topped Cedar Rapids Jefferson (21st, 56.750) by just 0.15, and Cedar Rapids Washington (22nd, 55.950) edged Grand Rapids (23rd, 55.700) by a quarter of a point. Rounding out the standings, John F. Kennedy (IA) earned a score of 52.350 in 24th.