posted Aug 21st, 2015 - Last but not least, the Rookie Class teams from the Northwest and the Florida Skydiving League had their own battles last weekend, as well, and the Rookie Class leaderboard was actually the only one where each team claimed or tied a highscore for a round.

NWSL team Low Key and FSL team DeLand Falcons were racing for the top spot on the leaderboard, while Ritzville Sundown (NWSL) and Group Therapy (FSL) eventually finished tied in 3rd place.

Low Key was the only Rookie Class team who had attended a meet prior to last weekend's events this year and improved the meet average from 3.8 to 5.3 with coaching help from Dave Correia. Low Key's 8-pointer in Round 3 was a new team highscore for a single round. The Low Key members were also very pleased with the improvement that videographer Garren Hahn has made. The team didn't have a single video bust this time, after quite a few at the June meet.

August 15th, 2015			Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5	Round 6	Total	Avg
Rank	Rookie		L,D,P	O,B,K	A,M,C	E,F,N	Q,K,J	H,G,P	Total	Avg
1	DeLand Falcons	FSL	4	7	6	9	-	-	26	6.5
2	LowKey	NWSL	5	4	8	7	(4)	(4)	24	5.3
3	Ritzville Sundown	NWSL	3	6	3	3	(4)	(4)	15	3.8
3	Group Therapy	FSL	3	5	2	5	(4)	-	15	3.8
5	Dobb's Mom	NWSL	3	1	0	5	(3)	(5)	9	2.8

The other two NWSL teams were new to 4-way competition. Former RainAir member Matthias Kaminski was back visiting and connected with friends from West Plains Skydiving to form the Ritzville Sundown lineup. His team mate and new 4-way competitor Tracey Holman was very happy with the meet experiences:

"It was the first skydiving competition of any kind for four out of five of our team mates, and we couldn't have been more pleased with how everything went! Deb Correia was in constant communication with us months in advance, providing important 4-way basics information to us when developing our team and answering any questions along the way.

"When we arrived, several people including Dave Correia immediately stepped up to take a look at our exits and transitions with constructive feedback from all throughout the day. We learned so much, and everyone is very excited to bring the knowledge back to our home dz, and we are looking forward to coming back and competing again in the future! Thank you so much to Deb, Dave, Skydive Snohomish, and everyone else who helped us out so much! We will be back!"

Last weekend's Rookie Class team on the top of the leaderboard came from DeLand and competed with two substitutes. The Sun Path Products NSL News reported on August 16th that three members of the newly formed DeLand Falcons (Brad Weinberg, Nicolas Davis, James Kirt) attended iFLY Orlando's first Indoor Cloud LeagueAugust event on the 13th.

Brad Weinberg and Nicolas Davis then came back for the outdoor competition two days later and had DeLand Momentum member Hal Spence in the lineup, who replaced player coach Trevor Cedar. James Kirt was also not available, and the Falcons asked iFLY Orlando instructor Nikki Blakeslee to join the team for the day.

Nikki Blakeslee had observed the FSL belly flyers very carefully at a few ICL events while doing her job as an instructor, and she even shared some flying time with participants. Then she borrowed a jump suit with grippers and joined the Falcons, who eventually built a very special (and legal) Crank (N) with her in Round 4...