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MANSFIELD - The Mansfield High School percussion ensemble won its second straight world title - setting a world record in the process.

Even more impressive: Band Director Peter Conti expected 2008 to be a rebuilding year.

Despite half of the emsemble's 18 members being new, Mansfield won the gold medal in the concert open division at the Winter Guard International World Championship in Dayton, Ohio, over the weekend.

"I think a lot of the older kids took them under their wing and told them what they had to do," Conti said Sunday by cell phone from Danbury, Conn., as the group headed back to Mansfield. "Last year, it was great. It was our first year.

"This year, we're truly amazed!" Mansfield scored a 98.9, a record for the class. The previous record was 98.75, Conti said.

"It just raised the bar," he said.

Penalties kept the score from being even higher, 99.1, Conti said.

As it did last year, Mansfield performed a medley from jazz great Pat Metheny.

"An outstanding jazz guitar player, who had a tone reminiscent of the famed jazz-fusion master, gave the program an authentic feel," reviewer Michael Reed wrote on the competition's Web site.

"After opening with the up-tempo, blues-influenced 'Have You Heard,' the mood grew tender with the hauntingly beautiful 'In Her Family.' One of Metheny's signature pieces, 'Minuano,' closed the program as the group masterfully captured the stylistic nuances of the Latin music."

Conti credited his staff - Matt McGuire, Dave Cavanaugh and Laurie Sklar - for helping make the weekend successful.

"They worked hard all year," Conti said. "The kids took to the program, they took to the staff and they bought into it."

The second world title caps a year when Mansfield also won its first New England Scholastic Band Association championship.