posted Jan 18th, 2020 - The XPG4 story has been a short and sweet one so far. Michelle Karamon, Jeana Billings, Katrina Autry Shows and Morgan Womble launched the 2-meet team project for the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2019 where they qualified as the U.S. national indoor team in 4-way Women for the FAI Indoor World Meet 2019. They won the FAI bronze medals at Weembi Lille a few months later last year with a 26.2 average and then stepped back.

As 8-way team members of Paraclete XP8, Michelle Karamon and Jeana Billings did not have much time for additional 4-way training, as they were in full training swing for USPA Nationals and FAI World Cup. They needed any extra time for their own 4-way team, Ranch 2nd Generation.

This situation changed when their former R2G team mates Christopher Kuhlmann and Joey Marshall were selected for Arizona Airspeed's new 4-way lineup. Michelle Karamon and Jeana Billings still have an extremely busy training and meet schedule with Airspeed XP8 for the 2020 season. The FAI outdoor gold medals are on stake in Tanay in August.

However, Airspeed XP8 members Niklas Hemlin and Mikhail Markine are also still using any extra time for their 4-way training with Arizona Airspeed, and Michelle Karamon and Jeana Billings decided to do the same.

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FAI Indoor World Meet 2019			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		M,K,D,14	Q,4,5	P,E,9,15	3,N,G,2	6,1,8	F,12,11	13,22,J	H,L,B,18	O,20,A,17	21,7,19	Total	Avg
1	Nephtys Weembi	FR	34	27	35	25	23	25	23	33	31	24	280	28.0
2	NFTO	UK	34	26	34	28	23	24	24	34	28	23	278	27.8
3	XPG4	US	34	26	33	24	21	24	24	28	25	23	262	26.2
4	Bubble Hubble	RU	29	25	33	24	22	23	22	31	25	21	255	25.5
5	China	CN	31	26	31	22	23	24	22	30	22	23	254	25.4
6	Team X	SE	26	25	28	24	20	22	23	28	24	23	243	24.3
7	No Mercy	PL	29	22	25	21	19	17	21	23	20	22	219	21.9
8	Skynamite	DE	28	20	26	20	17	17	19	26	18	19	210	21.0
9	Voss Vind Girls	NO	27	22	24	18	18	19	20	23	19	19	209	20.9

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They recruited Irina Meshcheryakova and Tamara Bartlett for their new XPG4 lineup, and the new chapter after the previous short and sweet 2019 story begins at the same place as the first part, Paraclete XP and this year's indoor championship at the end of February.

The new XPG4 members are entering the U.S. top level in 4-way Women with less experiences than the members of the previous XPG4 lineup, Katrina Autry Shows and Morgan Womble. Michelle Karamon and Jeana Billings are still expecting a similar progression as they had it with the 2019 lineup, at least in the long run.

Irina Meshcheryakova started with Rookie Class team SDC Foursight in the Midwest Skydiving League 2015. It was one year before Tamara Bartlett competed in the Rookie Class, as well, with Lodi Mix in Northern California. A year later, Irina Meshcheryakova trained and competed with CSC Swift in the AAA Class and continued with the team for another year.

Her next move brought her up to the U.S. top level in 4-way Women when she took the outside center slot for the Phoenix XP 2019 lineup. The U.S. national team in 4-way Women of 2018 needed new team members, when only Christine Bruchac and Lauren Byrd continued after the FAI World Meet 2018. Irina Meshcheryakova and Sheryl Benner completed the new Phoenix XP lineup for the 2019 season.

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XPG4 at the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2019 and the FAI Indoor World Cup 2019

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The Phoenix XP plan for the 2019 season did not work out as planned, and the team did not even compete at the USPA Nationals. A different lineup without Irina Meshcheryakova then still attended the FAI Outdoor World Cup 2019 and won the bronze medals.

In the meantime, Tamara Bartlett had moved up in her own 4-way career and won the USPA Intermediate Class silver medals with Stockholm Syndrome at last year's national championships. She also launched a new Indoor Cloud League project in Colorado, as the NSL News reported on 30 December 2019.

A lot of things changed after the FAI World Cup, not only for Airspeed XP8, Arizona Airspeed and SDC Rhythm XP. Phoenix XP members Lauren Byrd and Megan George joined Skydive Midwest NEXT for the 2020 season, while Michelle Karamon and Jeana Billings finally decided to recruit their own 4-way Women team.

The first new XPG4 scores will be on the Paraclete indoor leaderboard, and the new lineup also plans to compete outdoors at the Paraclete XP Summer Classic 2020.