crunchycookie3

14- 71.2 Brenham 13- 72.3 William B. Travis 12- 73.6 Barbers Hill 11- 73.95 Magnolia 10- 74.55 Paetow 9- 76.9 Churchill Fulshear 8- 77.05 Katy 7- 77.3 Cinco Ranch 6- 77.57 Clements 5- 78.95 Tompkins 4- 81.75 Foster 3- 83.6 Jordan (Visual) 1- TIE 84.3 Seven Lakes (GE) and Friendswood (Music)

After tonight, I’m going with Coppell, Bell, Cy-Fair, and Round Rock. We’ll have to see!

Bell has an interesting history of surprising people with a solid placement at their earlier contests. They seem to have become a wildcard here within the last 5 or so years. There’s also not much to see of Bell’s show online right now. Who knows! All of the groups will absolutely need to be on fire to get into finals on Saturday.

I think we are on track to see the most competitive BOA event to date here this year! I see 10 locks where it would be VERY strange to see any one of these groups outside of finals this year: Cedar Park Cedar Ridge CTJ Flomo Hebron Marcus Reagan TWHS Vandegrift Vista Ridge That leaves 4 final spots for grabs between Coppell, Cy-Fair, Foster, Friendswood, Bowie, Keller, LD Bell, Leander, Lake Travis, Pearland, Hendrickson, Round Rock, Rouse, Seven Lakes, Timber Creek, Waxahachie, Westlake, Westwood, and Wylie East. Good lord! I think we’ll see groups placing around 30th that would be top- half super regional finalists in STL and Indy.

On a very quick breakdown of schools in each 6a marching area, here are the numbers I’ve gathered. I’m praying so hard that area b will have AT LEAST 30 bands advance to area so that the 6th place nightmare in the area can finally end. Considering the depth of competition in the area, having 7 or 8 advance to state would be even better, but is unlikely. Being most optimistic and assuming each band makes a 1 at region: Area A could send 3 bands to state Area B could send 8 bands to state Area C could send 6 bands to state Area D could send 5 bands to state Area E could send 5 bands to state Area F could send 6 bands to state Area G could send 3 bands to state Area H could send 4 bands to state Area I could send 7 bands to state More realistically, I see 2 from A, 6 or 7 from B, 5 from C, 4 or 5 from D, 4 from E, 5 from F, 2 from G, 3 from H, and 5 or 6 from I. All competitive, but Area B still scares the crap out of me. Looking forward to seeing how it shakes out!

I actually have Marcus as my most likely medal contender from Texas, but so many people have them middle of the pack in their finals predictions (which is a crime). From what I've seen and heard, there is NO ONE that comes close to how clean they look and how sophisticated they sound. They might not be pulling out all the GE stops like FM, CTJ, and TWHS are, but their achievement is unmatched. As for BA, I was left feeling like I was missing something--not sure what just quite yet. I personally see them in the middle of the pack this year.

LD Bell and Westfield, too! Marcus and Flower Mound both need to add a Grand Nats win to their belts in order to join them, and The Woodlands needs to win a SMBC Finals. Vandegrift has not yet won a SMBC finals in the highest classification group, but in order to have a win at all three, they just need to pull at San Antonio SR. Edit: It would also be incorrect for me not to mention CTJ with winning last year's SMBC Finals and 2 San Antonio SR wins.