UMich Symphony Band - Paul Hindemith - Symphonic Metamorphosis 

Full disclosure: just checked the score the the final movement is scored at 80 .. Haithcock takes this at about 76.

Not uncommon. Depends on the conductor's preference. If the picc player doubles on flute, it may be the case they happen to be last chair in the section. Regardless of that, the conductor may like the sound better in that spot, perhaps just for this piece or for the majority of performances. Putting the piccolo in the left-most chair would produce a more pronounced, edgy sound, whereas putting it a few chairs into the seating acts as a defacto mute that takes some of the edge off the sound.

support what Mike has said below, sometimes you want to take the edge off and not have the Picc pointing out towards the audience. I now tend to put my Principal Flute in the middle next to the Principal Oboe so that they can work together, especially when doing Orchestral transcriptions.

1:09

You want speed with that precision? Then listen to Ormandy and the Philly. The genuine challenge here is maintaining the pace in each movement. Hat's off to the band for that.

@@johcafra Actually...I was really referring to the march. And yes I have other universities play it at tempo AND precisely...Eastman Winds...University of Houston to name a couple

@@turnne...and I'd meant Szell and the Cleveland. When I need a benchmark I reach out for Sony Classical ‎- LSBK 53258, on which Ormandy and the Philly contribute their performance of William Walton's Variations On a Theme By Hindemith (no kidding).

@@johnfraraccio99 Quite honestly...you really cant compare a wind ensemble performance of a transcribed piece to the original orchestral version because they will be different. You should benchmark them separately with other groups of the same type. As I said before ...this march has been done many times by excellent wind groups such as the Eastman winds, University of Houston and West Texas A&M. . You would be well served to listen to a Lake Highlands high school version of it as well that is on You Tube

I'm pretty sure his musical knowledge outshines yours by an order of at least ten thousand.