posted Nov 2nd, 2016 - The team in 1st place of the AA/Intermediate Class at the USPA Nationals 2016 received the attention of the Sun Path Products NSL News earlier than the actual USPA champion in this category for a good reason. Seattle Swift has been a relevant part of U.S. 4-way competition this year (Northwest Skydiving League) and failed to win the gold medals only due to the lack of a timely immigration procedure.

However, the USPA rules are clear and important, and Swift was only a guest team in this year's national championships. The USPA gold medals went to Zhills PreciZion, who left the rest of the Intermediate Class field pretty much in the dust. SDC Rhemix XP in the silver medal position ended up 29 points behind after ten rounds.

Seattle Swift (Northwest Skydiving League) and SDC Rhemix XP (Midwest Skydiving League) had both attended three meets this year before competing at the USPA Nationals, Zhills PreciZion had posted an 11.9 average at the June meet of the Florida Skydiving League.

There was not much competition for the gold and silver medals between the eligible teams, however, the race for the bronze medals compensated for the lack of suspension on the top of the leaderboard, even though Zhills PreciZion was also very eager to challenge the guest team from the Northwest round by round. The Florida team eventually won the very last round of the competition.

Bangarang of the Southern California Skydiving League turned the standings in in the last minute. The three teams in contention for the USPA bronze medals (Bangarang - Suffolk Sabotage - 4GetAboutIt!) were separated by one point going into Round 10, with Sabotage in the lead. Bangarang's 9-pointer became the bronze medal winner.

Zhills PreciZion is a very well planned and executed team story that began in the Indoor Cloud League world. Four of the USPA 2016 champions (Erica Gorski, Rebecca Maureen, Jimmy Xu and videographer Grant Underland) met each other at the FSL Tunnel Kicker events and have posted scores for iFLY Orlando since 2013.

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

The Sun Path Products NSL News had reported on May 10th, 2013, how PreciZion's Point Erica Gorski started with 1-on-1 training at one of the Indoor Cloud League events and ended up doing 4-way the same night. The story on July 12th followed up on her impressive progression.

Erica Gorski joined a Rookie Class 4-way team in the summer (4nicatorZ) while Rebecca Maureen and Grant Underland trained and competed with Pyro4ic the same year.

The 3-way eventually joined forces and launched the Zhills TranZend 2-year team project. That's when they connected with coach Sally Hathaway who worked with the team at Skydive City.

In the meantime, Jimmy Xu had moved to Florida and participated in his first Indoor Cloud League events in 2015. He became a consistent regular very soon and connected with the Florida Skydiving League community at the ICL events.

TranZend did not continue after competing at the USPA Nationals 2015, however, Erica Gorski and Rebecca Maureen wanted more and made new team plans. Jimmy Xu and Rebecca Maureen eventually connected with the Mortal Enemies and exchanged their thoughts and plans.

Result of the discussions and planning sessions was Zhills PreciZion for the 2016 season. Jimmy Xu had accepted the 4th slot and joined the team with a total of 300 jumps. Grant Underland stepped back and continued as the new team videographer, while Sally Hathaway, world champion in 4-way Women of 2001 and 2004, agreed to become the team's player coach for the 2016 season in the AA/Intermediate Class.

Zhills PreciZion made an intensive plan with indoor and outdoor training at Skydive City and different wind tunnels. 130 training jumps and seven tunnel hours later PreciZion ended up on the USPA podium with the 2016 gold medals in the Intermediate Class.

It was the team's goal to finish in the USPA medal positions, and the ultimate goal was accomplished with the gold medals.

Two other teams from Skydive City (SCZ FutheranZe XP, SCZ ZEUS), both with several FSL Tunnel Kicker and Indoor Cloud League participants, witnessed the PreciZion success in Eloy and will be motivated to follow the same path. Zhills PreciZion has no plans for the 2017 season yet, and the team would have to move up into the AAA/Advanced Class competition as the USPA gold medalist.