SAN ANTONIO -- More than 1,000 students from all over the nation performed at the Alamodome Saturday for the annual Drum Corps International Regional Southwestern Championship.
- World's top college and high school musicians
- Traveling to 24 cities over the summer
- 2 Texas teams competed
The world’s top college and high school band musicians sharpened their instrumental skills and competed for bragging rights.
"We compete, we are here to compete against the world’s best," said San Antonio's Crossmen's band co-director Natalie Steele.
The students are spending their summer vacation traveling across the country to 24 cities. In August, there's a grand championship that many of the teams are fighting to qualify in.
Teams came from as far as Wisconsin to compete. This year, two Texas teams, one from Austin and the other from San Antonio competed to bring home the title.
"San Antonio is our home, so coming back home after a long season is so great," said University of Texas at El Paso student Amber Najera. "The crowd always goes wild."
Najera performs on the color guard for the San Antonio Crossmen band. Typically, she plays for UTEP's band, but the past three summers have been spent in San Antonio and on the road.
"We have three weeks left and we’re just going to keep pushing to the end,” said Najera.
Each band team ranges from 150-200 students. This year, Crossmen Band had two students from Japan compete with them.
The San Antonio band finished 11th overall in the competition. Austin’s team, Genesis, came in 19th.