posted Jun 6th, 2006 - The Midwest Skydiving League 2006 season finally kicked off Saturday at Skydive Chicago in some of the nicest weather the Midwest has enjoyed this year. The first meet is always full of surprises, first and foremost being who some of the competitors are that we will be seeing this season. This meet, which mostly featured veterans from previous seasons, had six teams in three different classes.

The flow of the teams that initially began in our Rookie Class two and three years ago and progressed to the A Class competition last year has now moved into the AA Class, which appears to be our class to watch in 2006. Last year's MWSL A Class champs, Chicagoland Skydiving Center's Sirens, were joined by Skydive Chicago's Furies, Skydive Chicago Cohesion and Just 4Fun.

Despite some solid skydiving by Cohesion and Just4Fun having their best meet ever (if video busts are discounted), it quickly became apparent that the top two teams from 2005, both with all woman rosters, would again be the pacesetters.

After four rounds the Furies (Sarah Lawrence, Gosia Cienkosz, Shannon Sweet, Lisa DeSimone, Charles Lane on camera) led the Sirens by only two points. But the draw for rounds five and six did not offer good opportunities for making up many points and, in fact, the two teams had identical scores in those rounds resulting in a 57-55 win for the SDC ladies.

Last year's hot MWSL division, the A Class, had only a single entry today, the former Rookie Class team Chasing Amy. Amy made one of the smoothest transitions to a step up in the competition classes that I can recall by posting a very strong total of 27 points, scoring as many points as they did in all three of their 2005 meets combined.

While Amy did not win any prizes on Saturday, team member Jim Bloomingdale received a generous gift from Isaiah McCauliffe and the good folks at Performance Designs. Jim had lost his Stiletto 150 while participating in the SDC Furies "Intro to 4-way" camp two weeks ago. PD and the MWSL awarded Jim a 30% off certificate to help him replace it.

The Rookie Class also had a single entry, and they too had an impressive performance. Vida Loca (Ken Allen, Kelly Lethner, Joe Sallas and Patrick Veeder) posted a total of 24 points over six rounds. In addition to taking home an MWSL meet prize for their efforts, VL was awarded Javelin t-shirts courtesy of SunPath to welcome them into the world of 4-way competition.

All in all, it was a very promising and enjoyable start to our 2006 season. Our thanks to Rook, Melissa, Tom Aussem, Ada Napolitano, Whitney Reilly and the rest of the staff at Skydive Chicago for running a very well paced and organized meet. Also, thanks to Drew Hickok for serving as meet judge. MWSL Meet 2 is less than three weeks away on June 24 at Chicagoland Skydiving in Hinckley, Illinois. Hope to see everyone there.

Written by MWSL Director Alan Butt