posted Feb 8th, 2016 - Something very unusual happened at last year's USPA Nationals.

The last time when the three USPA 4-way leaderboards (Open - Advanced - Intermediate) had no team from Texas in the medal positions was in 2008.

Lone-Star 4-way teams had not made it often to the medal level on USPA leaderboards before 2008 either.

Spaceland Inferno (James Klinge, Alex Pincus, Jim Walker, Dave Burton, with Clint Hillis on camera) won the last gold medals for Texas in the Advanced Class of 2003 before the major drought began.

The Texas USPA medal drought between 2004 and 2008 was followed by a development in the opposite direction.

It began in 2009 when Spaceland Havoc won the Advanced Class bronze medals, Spaceland Mamba in the Intermediate Class on home turf, and Spaceland Force XP challenged Arizona Airspeed's Odyssey lineup for the top spot in the Open Class.

There have not been USPA national championships ever since where teams from Texas would not bring home at least one set of the 4-way medals.

The 6-year streak of Texas 4-way success ended last year in Eloy where eight teams identified themselves as Texas-born and tried to reach the USPA medal positions without success.

USPA Nationals 2015		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Mixed	J,H,2,8	6,D,18	F,9,L,O	1,17,E	K,19,N,P	3,7,5	4,A,B,12	11,16,M	15,Q,22	20,14,10	Total	Avg
8	Dallas 350	16	16	23	15	17	17	15	16	14	11	160	16.0
9	Verve XP	15	13	27	14	17	16	16	16	13	12	159	15.9
1	Air Force Smolder	16	14	26	15	17	15	15	14	11	11	154	15.4
10	Spaceland Lite	16	14	23	13	17	13	13	13	14	10	146	14.6
2	Perris Quattro	15	10	18	13	14	13	11	10	10	9	123	12.3
11	Camdak.is	14	11	21	12	12	13	12	8	10	8	121	12.1
3	Perris Dauntless Five	11	13	18	10	10	12	12	12	10	8	116	11.6
3	Event Horizon	13	11	17	12	12	10	11	11	9	10	116	11.6

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Spaceland Lite and Dallas 350 had won their Advanced Class gold medals in 2011 and 2014. They are not allowed any longer to compete in the same category, where they would still be competitive. They had to move up into the Open Class, according to the USPA eligibility rules.

Texas Crush was the strongest team in the Advanced Class last year and finished in 6th place. Several teams from Texas competed in the Intermediate Class and did not finish in the Top 10 spots.

It is unlikely that last year's 4-way team trips back to Texas without any medals were the start of a new drought.

Several new wind tunnels in the state, successful team projects (Spaceland Lite, Dallas 350), including regular Indoor Cloud League activities, have been supportive in the recruiting of new and competitive 4-way teams. It is probably only a matter of time when the next team from Texas will stand again on the USPA podium...