A few outsiders stole the show at Saturday’s Bands of America Central Indiana Regional, with Ohio’s Centerville and Illinois’ Lincoln-Way earning the top two spots at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. 

That said, four Indiana bands still earned finalist positions, all within the top six. 

The main takeaways:

Finals Breakdown

Centerville’s score of 78.600 was more than enough to earn the top spot by just over a point, despite taking third place in visual performance. That caption went to Lincoln-Way, which earned third overall in Finals with a score of 76.700 despite taking second in the Prelims competition.

Second in Finals went to Indiana’s highest-scoring rep, Fishers, which earned a mark of 77.570 and also scored ahead of Centerville in visual. 

Indiana bands filled out the next three slots, with Carroll (4th, 74.950) earning 4th over Decatur Central (5th, 74.530) by less than half a point. Carroll earned the majority of its lead in music performance and general effect, making up for a head-to-head loss to Decatur Central in visual performance. 

The next three competitors all scored within six-tenths of each other as close competition continued down the Finals recap. Ben Davis took sixth place with a score of 71.850, with Walled Lake Central (7th, 71.450) and Lakota West (8th, 71.350) both close by. 

The tight finish between seventh and eighth was largely decided by the general effect, which went to Walled Lake Central despite Lakota West earning a large advantage in visual performance. 

Walled Lake Central had also taken tenth in Prelims before jumping three spots in Finals competition. The Michigan band earned the event’s AA title. 

Beechwood (KY) represented the ‘A’ classification quite well with a ninth-place finish and checking in as the last band to crack 70 points with a tally of 70.350. Fellow Kentucky band Henry Clay wasn’t far off in tenth, scoring 69.650.

Prelims Points

Franklin Central (IN) and Campbell County (KY) were both painfully close to earning spots in Saturday night’s Finals, scoring 68.300 and 68.200 respectively in 11th and 12th to Walled Lake Central’s Prelims mark of 68.600. 

Goshen (14th, 67.250) scored among the top ten in multiple general effect captions, ultimately taking 11th overall in the total caption.

Three bands were separated by less than a point for the final spot among the Top 15. Ohio’s Central Crossing took that title with a score of 67.900, defeating Hamilton Southeastern (16th, 65.650) by just a quarter of a point; Hamilton Southeastern scored as high as ninth in a handful of subcaptions. Rockwood Summit — the event’s lone Missouri representative also wasn’t far off the pace with a final mark of 65.100 in 17th. 

Undoubtedly the event’s closest finish for obvious reasons, South Oldham (KY) and Hilliard Bradley (OH) finished in a deadlocked tie with a score of 62.700 for 19th. Fairborn (OH), was quite close to making it a three-way tie, earning a score of 62.500.