posted Oct 17th, 2025 - The USPA Nationals always feature exciting competition in all categories at the event, while the NSL News focuses mainly on horizontal formation skydiving competition. There is more than enough content to cover in these seven USPA categores (4-way Open/Advanced/Intermediate/Beginner - 8-way Open/Advanced/Intermediate), while the traditional 10-way and 16-way events usually get some attention, as well.

Especially the qualification years for the next outdoor world championships add a different level of excitement to the USPA Nationals, as only one team represents each participating country in 4-way and 8-way, and U.S. teams are always contenders for the FAI medal positions, often the winners in the formation skydiving events. Future 4-way and 8-way world champions most often begin their careers with different teams in lower categories at the national championships.

It is qualification time again this year, and the expected duel between Golden Knights and Arizona Airspeed has been covered by the NSL News comprehensively. The NSL Power Rankings on October 14th included the first overview of the situation in 4-way Open with more insights of the qualification, followed by an introduction of the rest of the 4-way Open Class field a day later. However, U.S. 8-way teams have to win the USPA Nationals, as well, if they want to compete at the next outdoor world championship. The 8-way qualification usually does not offer the same excitement as in 4-way, which could be different this year.

USPA Nationals 2025		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open Power Rankings	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	Total	Avg
1	Paraclete XP8	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1	GKAZ8	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
3	Prison 9	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
3	Mandatory Fun!	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
5	Perris Byte	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
6	Papa D's G8ngsteRhs	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
6	No Guts No Gloryhole	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

The overview of the last 20 years in U.S. 8-way competition is showing that the winning team usually does not have much opposition, and it has been an ongoing duel between Arizona Airspeed and Golden Knights, until Prison 9 won their first 8-way silver medals last year. Arizona Airspeed was not even fielding an 8-way lineup at Skydive Chicago, and the door for a different team in 2nd place was open.

This will be different this year, as three Airspeed 4-way members (Joey Marshall, Alisson de Vargas, Doug Hendrix) are joining forces with the complete Golden Knights 4-way lineup. Chris Kuhlmann continues in 8-way with Mandatory Fun! and Michelle Karamon is filling his 8-way slot with GKAZ8.

Golden Knights and Arizona Airspeed both have all of their energy focused on the 4-way qualification, of course. However, the situation at USPA Nationals is not as challenging as it is at world championships and world cups. The two events are not taking place on the same days, and no double duties are required. The 4-way competition will be completed before 8-way begins. The pressure of the exciting 4-way duel will be gone, and the teams can casually switch to the 8-way competition. However, most likely there will be new and different pressure in the second formation skydiving competition event, and it will be on another team.

8-way Winners and Runner-Ups at USPA Nationals in the last 20 years

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The NSL News mentioned in a few 8-way updates since the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2025 that Kirk Verner and Jeana Billings are re-building the XP8 lineup. They have seven new team mates this year, including 8-way world champion Jennifer Davidson and new team videographer Kevin Penn.

Jennifer Davidson, Jill Stephenson, Brandon Kashani and Ian Pedowitz competed with the new lineup already at the indoor championship in February, where 8-way world champions John D'Annunzio and Andrew Happick re-joined forces with Jeana Billings and Kirk Verner. The complete XPGK8 world champion lineup of 2024 then followed up a few months later at the FAI Indoor World Championship 2025.

The new XP8 members were already in training with Jeana Billings and Kirk Verner by then, which included two more new team members, James Hall and Carl Kallgren. The USPA Nationals 2025 will be showdown time for the complete new XP8 lineup. It will be the first outdoor competition for the 8-way team, and they are well prepared after 500 training jumps plus tunnel time. It will still not be a walk in the park at all for Paraclete's XP8 lineup, as the GKAZ8 combination has more than enough potential to win round by round, despite the lack of training. The previously closest 8-way competition at USPA Nationals took place in 2019 when XP8 won the competition over the Golden Knights by eight points (197 - 189). It could be just as close at the upcoming 8-way competition.

USPA Nationals 2019			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		13,16,20		C,B,M,D,1		N,Q,17,D		5,L,E,21		P,15,12		14,4,22		10,O,9		F,19,8		11,7,18		2,6,A		Total	Avg
1	Tanay 8	RU	20		23		23		19		26		21		17		16	-1	17	-1	19		201	20.1
2	XP8	US	19	-1	24		22		19		24		20		17		16	-1	17	-1	19		197	19.7
3	Golden Knights	US	18	-1	23		17	-5	18	-1	24		19	-1	16		17		18	-1	19		189	18.9
4	Arizona Airspeed	US	16	-2	21		21		17		18	-2	19	-1	16		15		15	-2	16		174	17.4
5	Amphibious Attack Tigers	US	9		13		12		12		13		9	-1	10		11		8	-2	10		107	10.7
6	SDC Rhythm 9 XP	US	12		10	-2	9	-3	10	-1	11		12		10		9		11		10		104	10.4
7	Monster Mix	US	7	-4	10		9		9		9	-1	10	-1	9		9		8		9		89	8.9
8	Perris Riot!	US	9		7	-2	8		8		8	-1	9		9		9		9		7	-1	83	8.3
9	Fusion XP	US	7		8	-1	8	-1	9	-1	9		10		6	-1	7		7	-2	9		80	8.0
10	Lite 8	US	7		4	-2	6		6		4	-1	6	-1	6		4		5		7		55	5.5

Paraclete XP8 - Golden Knights at the USPA Nationals 2019, Video Footage Courtesy of USPA/OmniSkore!HD

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