With more than 80 groups competing at the Coliseum in Denton, TX, this weekend as part of the WGI Southwest Guard Power Regional, a number of competitive storylines emerged from two days of performances.

Here are the major takeaways from this weekend’s action down south.

Scholastic Open powers lock down top spots

Earlier this month in Austin, McNeil HS—last year’s fourth-place WGI World Championship finisher in SO—opened up a two-point lead on the Scholastic Open pack, with Dripping Springs and Little Elm neck-and-neck in the next two spots.

A lot can change in two weeks. Dripping Springs made sure to prove that.

This time around, Dripping Springs erased that gap and topped McNeil by one-tenth of a point to earn first place in Open Class with a score of 88.350, with an advantage in General Effect leading the way.

Little Elm held, earning third place, but finished just over three points off the top two.

Those three groups entered the weekend among the top six nationally in their class, per WGI’s own standings. Following the Southwest Power Regional, Dripping Springs and McNeil, in that order, now own the top two spots, with Little Elm sitting in seventh.

CGT owns IW ranks at Denton Event

One of three returning Independent World finalists at this weekend’s event, last year’s fourth-place finisher, CGT Dallas, dominated its class in Denton, with a three-point lead over the field.

What probably stood out even more, though, was CGT Denton. An Open Class finalist in 2018, CGT Denton defeated both Black Gold and Cypress Independent—both of which earned spots in IW finals last year—by hair-thin margins to take home second place.

CGT Denton’s score of 84.950 gave it a narrow edge over Black Gold’s 84.700 and Cypress’ 84.050, an advantage almost entirely built by a commanding lead in General Effect.

It may be too early to extrapolate, but there’s a reason to believe CGT Denton may be finals-bound—or at least competing for a spot in the Top 15—in its very first year at the World Class level.

James Bowie holds serve, tops strong SW trio

The only returning Scholastic World finalist at this weekend’s event locked up first-place out of three World Class groups by a commanding margin. With a tally of 82.200 in finals, James Bowie defeated its next closest competitor, The Woodlands, by over 3.5 points. With that score, James Bowie positioned itself for a Top 10 finish, per WGI’s standings.

Those same standings, though, show that James Bowie might not be the lone representative of Texas in SW finals. Both The Woodlands (2nd, 78.600) and Marcus (3rd, 77.200) find themselves hovering right near the finalist cut-off.

As always, they’ll have plenty of competition when the season makes its way to Dayton, but all three of these programs proved they’ll have something to say about the Top 15 when April rolls around.