posted Sep 18th, 2026 - The Golden Knights left Skydive Perris after completing the 4-way competition at the USPA Nationals 2026. They had no plans to compete in any of the other formation skydiving events and intended to return to preparations for their next major event as quickly as possible: the FAI Outdoor World Championship 2026.

Arizona Airspeed continued with the 8-way competition, while the other traditional events, 16-way and 10-way, are also regularly on Airspeed's agenda. This worked out well for the NSL News, as the complete lineup was available for an NSL Live Talk interview after the completion of the ten rounds of 8-way competition on Thursday.

Michelle Karamon, Alisson de Vargas, Doug Hendrix and Joey Marshall joined forces with Daniel BC, Jack Jefferies, Niklas Hemlin and Brian Johnson, with their 4-way team videographer Alexander Swindle on camera for the 8-way team. They added the USPA 8-way silver medals to their collection and will continue with eight other carefully selected teammates for the six rounds of 16-way. The more casual part of the Airspeed experience at the USPA Nationals will conclude with the 10-way competition and the final round featuring an exit from the DC-9 jet aircraft at Skydive Perris. Arizona Airspeed and the Golden Knights have often joined forces for 8-way, 16-way and 10-way events at the USPA Nationals. This year, however, that did not fit with the Golden Knights' plans following the 4-way competition.

USPA Nationals 2026		1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open	A,9,B,D		5,C,L,15		F,7,8		E,H,13,N		16,P,M,20		Q,G,11,21		4,12,17		22,O,2		19,6,J		18,1,K		Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	47		25	-2	26		31	-1	26	-1	18		20	-1	20		23		18	-2	254	25.4
2	Golden Knights	38	-4	27	-1	25		30	-2	27	-1	19	-4	20		21		25	-1	19	-2	251	25.1

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NSL Live Talk with Arizona Airspeed at the USPA Nationals 2026

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The NSL Live Talk conversation with all team members covered only the 4-way competition, with particular focus on the first two rounds of the event. Team captain Joey Marshall explained that his current lineup appears to have a natural strength when it comes to fast sequences. They were already aware of this important advantage before they had to perform their first Super Sequence in competition.

In fact, the current lineup had not yet faced a Super Sequence, and their fastest round so far had been Round 7 at the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2026 (7,L,E,Q), which they completed with a 46-pointer. The Golden Knights won the same round with 47 points. Joey Marshall has a 43-pointer outdoors in his records (O,E,C,Q,H), drawn for Round 1 at the USPA Nationals 2023.

The Arizona Airspeed lineup's natural talent for faster sequences obviously paid off in Round 1. The nine-point deficit for the Golden Knights was not caused solely by the four point deductions. Joey Marshall was right in pointing out that his team performs well on fast sequences. However, he was still concerned after the convincing 47-pointer, as he expected the Golden Knights to come back with a vengeance in Round 2. The U.S. Army team did exactly that, winning the round by two points. Joey Marshall's concern was not only about the Golden Knights' comeback energy after Round 1. He was also thinking about Airspeed's own experiences with Block 5 (Opal–Opal) as the exit maneuver. The memory of Round 9 at the Summer Classic 2025 was not encouraging, so Airspeed gave the exit preparations special attention in Round 2.

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Round 9 of Arizona Airspeed at the Paraclete XP Summer Classic 2025

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