With the season ready to shift toward the highly-anticipated Grand Nationals, the Golden State had its opportunity to shine on the Bands of America stage in early November at the BOA California Regional Championship in Bakersfield.

One of California’s most accomplished marching music programs made its presence felt and then some.

The Big Winner, Next Stop: Grand Nats

Ayala, which is a consistent championship contender in the state of California and nationally -- especially on the indoor percussion scene -- took home the Regional Champion title over the field of nine bands by nearly 10 full points with a top score of 85.300 in Finals competition.

The southern California band swept every single caption; its closest caption win came by just under a point and a half in visual performance. 

Down the Recaps

The other two medalists staked resounding claim to their spots as well, as Clovis West earned a final tally of 75.700 to take second, while also finishing in second in nearly every caption and sub-caption. Its lone third-place caption finish came in music performance; second place in that caption went to Covina (4th, 70.400). Covina was the event’s AA champion.

As for the third-place finisher, Sierra Vista represented Nevada well with a score of 72.500, while nearly reaching Clovis West in music performance.

Undoubtedly the event’s closest race came at the cut-off point for the top five, as Liberty (5th, 68.800) topped Arizona’s lone representative, Perry (6th, 68.400), by just four-tenths to take fifth place. Perry defeated Liberty by a decent margin in visual performance, but the California band made up for it in the other two major captions, especially general effect. Liberty also earned the title of AAA regional champion.

The hometown band, Bakersfield earned seventh place with a score of 64.250 and earned seventh pretty much across the board. Bakersfield did actually tie with Christopher (8th, 62.850) in the visual performance caption.

Rounding out the finals recap, Palo Verde earned a score of 54.400 in ninth place.