posted Oct 27th, 2016 - The Intermediate Class competition at the USPA Nationals 2016 had still the largest participation of all Formation Skydiving events, even though roughly a dozen teams had moved up into the Advanced Class with the complete IPC dive pool.

However, ten of the 26 Intermediate Class (AA) teams were not eligible for official rankings on the USPA leaderboard, and one of them finished on the very top, Seattle Swift.

The Northwest Skydiving League team attended three of the four NWSL meets before the USPA Nationals, and the Sun Path Products NSL News had introduced Seattle Swift as a top contender for USPA gold medals with the story on July 20th. By September, Swift had moved up to the U.S. top spot in the SKYLEAGUE.COM rankings, followed by Zhills PreciZion, who eventually won the USPA gold medals.

USPA Nationals 2016		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Intermediate	22,O,8	1,21	A,E,Q,J	D,L,C,15	M,P,9	F,B,13	20,2	18,N,7	11,K,14	4,G,19	Total	Avg
G	Seattle Swift	11	11	23	15	24	16	13	13	11	10	147	14.7
1	Zhills PreciZion	10	11	20	14	20	15	11	12	11	11	135	13.5
2	SDC Rhemix XP	9	9	15	9	18	11	9	9	8	9	106	10.6
G	Napoleon Dynamite	8	7	13	10	18	12	7	9	9	9	102	10.2
3	Bangarang	9	7	14	8	15	11	8	10	7	9	98	9.8
4	Suffolk Sabotage	7	6	16	7	16	12	7	11	8	6	96	9.6
4	4GetAboutIt!	8	8	15	11	14	8	8	9	8	7	96	9.6
6	Threat Level Orange	10	7	9	8	14	11	8	10	6	8	91	9.1
G	SCZ FutheranZe XP	6	8	16	8	12	7	7	8	6	8	86	8.6
G	Babes On Our Bellies (BOOBS)	8	8	14	6	12	11	7	9	6	5	86	8.6
7	Perris Nacho Key	8	6	8	9	13	9	7	9	6	7	82	8.2
8	Four Shades of Grey	8	5	12	7	13	10	7	3	7	8	80	8.0
G	Hard on the Kittens	7	9	12	7	11	7	7	6	6	7	79	7.9
9	SCZ ZEUS	7	7	11	6	13	6	7	9	4	7	77	7.7
9	Mark and Darryld 4ish Ways	7	6	12	7	11	10	5	8	7	4	77	7.7
G	Crackers & Beans & Rice	8	6	9	8	12	9	7	6	7	5	77	7.7
G	Semi4	8	5	6	6	13	8	7	6	7	8	74	7.4
G	Cosmic Remnants	6	6	11	9	13	4	5	5	7	6	72	7.2
11	In4mal Affair	6	5	12	8	10	9	4	6	5	6	71	7.1
12	Larry	5	6	8	6	11	7	6	6	6	7	68	6.8
13	My Milkshakes	6	4	8	6	12	7	7	6	6	5	67	6.7
14	SDMW Extreme	6	5	10	5	6	7	7	5	6	6	63	6.3
15	The Falling Misfits	4	3	6	4	8	2	3	4	4	3	41	4.1
G	4-Chick Chick Boom!	5	4	4	3	7	5	2	3	4	3	40	4.0
16	Beyond Ambition	2	2	2	0	1	1	2	3	3	3	19	1.9
G	Win or Lose We Booze	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	0.1

Seattle Swift members have also participated in iFLY Seattle's Indoor Cloud League events, where they have been helping to recruit and train new 4-way competitors.

NWSL director Deb Coreia can be proud of her team, even though they could not bring the gold medals back to Seattle. She said that the team worked very hard this year, even though the team's eligibility was on the line for bureaucratic reasons.

Dmitry Rudchenko's green card application was proceeding very slowly for eight months in the immigration process, which is much longer than usual. The team has experiences with these procedures, as Djordje Mandaric needed only four months for his green card last year. The team thought that the time frame would be the same, and Dmitry Rudchenko filed his application accordingly.

USPA Nationals 2014				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Intermediate			9,L,B	4,19	K,A,G,N	11,1	14,E,D	8,18	20,15	6,22	2,H,Q	O,13,M	Total	Avg
1	Spaceland SPX5	US	E	17	10	16	12	12	9	11	10	14	13	124	12.4
G	Falcons	QA	E	16	10	15	9	10	11	12	13	16	12	124	12.4
2	Team Singularity	US	E	14	10	15	9	11	9	10	10	14	13	115	11.5
G	Synergy	US	E	17	8	15	9	7	6	11	11	12	15	111	11.1
3	Centerpoint	US	E	15	7	15	9	10	9	10	10	13	13	111	11.1

It was the second time for Swift members Dmitry Rudchenko and videographer Andrey Ulanov that they missed a USPA medal due to the same reason, after placing 3rd at the USPA Nationals 2014. However, the 14.7 average is on the leaderboard, and Swift gave away only the very last round of the meet to the gold medalist from Florida, who also tied two more rounds with the strongest AA Class team from the Northwest.

Deb Correia said that it was very exciting to see one of her teams on the top: "It's something we've never seen before." She remembered when she was in full training with Elsinore Vengeance in 2006/2006, and her team trained in California. $5,000 per year alone went to traveling, which teams can now use for indoor training. Vengeance finished 10th with a 10.3 average at the USPA Nationals 2006 and tied in 8th with 11.3 a year later. A wind tunnel in Seattle could have possibly lifted Vengeance to medal level, as well.

Seattle Swift could compete again in the Intermediate Class next year and win USPA gold medals. The move up into the Advanced Class competition is the other option...