One of the furthest-traveling competitors claimed top prize at Saturday’s Bands of America Arizona Regional, as Oklahoma’s Coweta High School topped a list of 22 bands at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff and earned the title of Class AA champion. 

Finals Results

Coweta earned a top score of 75.800 to lead the field by more than a full point in finals. The next closest bands were neck-and-neck, though, as Foothill (NV) took second—and the AAAA title—with a score of 74.300 to Desert Vista’s (AZ) third-place mark of 74.200. 

That said, Coweta jumped all the way from its Prelims position of fourth place to earn the regional victory, definitely not something you see very often at Bands of America events. The Oklahoma band had trailed the top band in Prelims, Foothill, by more than a point and a half.

While Desert Vista finished well ahead of Foothill in visual performance captions and earned a slim lead in general effect, Foothill’s commanding music advantage made the difference for second place.

A two-point gap separated the top three from the next several finishers, as New Mexico representative La Cueva (fourth, 72.050) finished just over two points off the top trio. Mountain Ridge's (fifth, 71.800) excellence shined in the visual caption. 

Arizona bands Sandra Day O’Connor (sixth, 71.100) and Corona del Sol (seventh, 70.500) weren’t far off the top five and were the only other bands to crack 70 in Saturday night’s finals. Corona del Sol had originally taken third in Prelims. 

One of the few bands representing California, Covina took eighth place with a tally of 69.150, topping Colorado representative Rampart (ninth, 67.700) by a solid margin. Rancho rounded out the finalist pool in 10th with a score of 66.700.

Class Awards

Things were much tighter in that grouping during Prelims, though, as the bands ranked eighth through 12th were all separated by just under a point. With the top 10 cutoff being set at Rampart’s 65.450, Williams Field (11th, 65.100) and Sierra Vista (64.975) both just missed out on Saturday night's finals.

A very close gap separated Basha (13th, 63.500) and Queen Creek (14th, 63.300) — the last to bands to break 60 — for the lucky No. 13 spot. Basha’s scores in music performance and general effect made the difference for the Arizona band.

Rounding out the top 15, Mesquite (15th, 59.500) held off Mountain View (16th, 59.000) by half a point, mostly due to a strong lead in music performance. Not far off, Raymond S. Kells earned 17th with a score of 58.200, while Arcadia took 18th with a tally of 57.000).  

With a score of 55.150, Nevada’s Pinecrest Academy took 19th overall and earned top marks in the "A" classification.

Arizona bands Ironwood Ridge (20th, 51.850), Hamilton (21st, 50.800) and Mountain Pointe (22nd, 49.700) rounded out the Prelims rundown.