The Mt. Pleasant Marching Band performs before a packed stadium at Linden High School Stadium Saturday night.

Full disclosure: I am the insanely proud parent of a couple of members of the Mt. Pleasant High School marching band. My son is a second-year clarinet player; my daughter is a first-year member of the color guard. So don't expect this to be completely unbiased.

The competition was complete Saturday evening at Linden High School stadium outside of Flint. The stands were absolutely packed. Grand Blanc High School's highly stylized "Electronica" show had blown everyone away with tight marching, challenging music and great showmanship. Grand Blanc is, fortunately for Mt. Pleasant, in a much larger flight, or division, than Mt. Pleasant.

Mt. Pleasant's "Socially Numb" show, based on Pink Floyd music, is coming together. Coming off a year as a state finalist, the Oiler band has a lot of new faces. Mt. Pleasant lost a lot to graduation, and the band is smaller than last year's edition.

Rival Marysville countered with a well-choreographed, well-directed show with a baseball theme. Band members were outfitted in baseball uniforms, color guard members in bright red batgirl uniforms.

I couldn't call it. Both these bands' shows were tight, sonically solid and fun to watch. And it was taking forever for the judges to announce their decisions.

Then a sign: A family from Mt. Pleasant, the Lapp family, won the 50-50 drawing run by the Linden Band Boosters. Would the break go the Oilers' way?

Finally, the awards. Flight IV: Bad Axe wins. Flight II: Flushing outpoints Saginaw Heritage by nearly 12 points. Flight I: Grand Blanc blows past second-place Royal Oak by 22 points.

Flight III: It's a tie. Marysville, 62.35, Mt. Pleasant 62.35.

Mt. Pleasant outpoints Marysville on marching, Marysville outpoints Mt. Pleasant on overall effect.

The tiebreaker: Overall music.

The Oilers take it by a little over a point. First place, Flight III.

Two competitions, two firsts.

Last year, the Oilers rated a 56.2 after their second competition, and ended up finishing sixth in the state. This year, in a competition where every point is a challenge, Mt. Pleasant's scoring six points above where they were at this time last year.

This weekend, the Oilers play at the Madison Heights Lamphere Invitational. The Flight III competition will be provided by Trenton (they're usually good), St. Clair Shores Lake View and St. Clair Shores Lake Shore.