posted Dec 28th, 2006 - The news section of the Fastrax website caught the NSL News attention today. New Fastrax member Thomas Hughes contacted the NSL News asking for the meet dates of the Southwest Skydiving League 2007. He mentioned that the female line-up of Team Fastrax was working on the team's competition schedule for the 2007 season.

The NSL could not provide the best answer for the inquiry since the SSL 2007 schedule has not been finalized yet. However, the event dates will soon be published, and the NSL News became interested in the topic that Thomas Hughes had brought up. A quick visit at the Fastrax website provided the following official information:

Fastrax News Service

"The Team Fastrax Project has created a new Women's team and is being called Team Fastrax Blue.

The official line-up for the Women's Four Way Team is Kelley Frederickson, Becky Brocato, Erin Murphy and Brianne Thompson. The team has yet to identify the official team videographer. Fastrax Blue will make roughly 500 training jumps in 2007 and conduct more than 20 hours of windtunnel."

The names of the team members alone justify a closer look at the new Fastrax effort to support an additional 4-way team. Fastrax Select, with Kris Byrne, Michelle Carlstrom, Tammi Rettig and Jacquelyn OBryan in the line-up, was a part of Team Fastrax throughout the 2005 season.

Fastrax Select finished behind Synchronicity at the USPA Nationals 2005 (154 - 145). However, the officially qualified national 4-way team in the female category decided not to represent the USA at the World Meet 2006 and travel to Russia for the Malevsky Cup 2006 instead. Fastrax Select was sanctioned by USPA as the national US team for the world meet in Germany.

Former Synchronicity member Jacquelyn OBryan left the Select line-up at the end of the 2005 season and was replaced by Brianne Thompson. Team Fastrax and the new Select line-up broke their ties in 2006, and Elsinore Select, with Kris Byrne (Point), Michelle Carlstrom (Tail), Tammi Rettig (Outside Center), Brianne Thompson (Inside Center) in the line-up competed for the USA in Germany.

Elsinore Select was tied with the Russian Ladybirds in 3rd place after the five rounds of the meet with a 14.6 meet average, and the Russian team won the bronze medals with the higher score in Round 4 (13 - 12). Synchronicity finished at the Malevsky Cup 2006 with a 15.6 average, which would have secured the bronze medals for the USA in Germany.

The Synchronicity members told the NSL News in Russia that the Malevsky Cup 2006 was the last competition for this line-up. However, the same team (Becky Brocato, Sally Hathaway, Jaimie Johnson and Kim Glover) came back in October to compete at the USPA Nationals 2006 and secured the highest placement of any all-female line-ups in USPA's Open Class competition.

The 10th place for Synchronicity, clearly ahead of Elsinore Select (159 - 136), secures once again the team's status as the US national team in the female category for the 2007 season.

However, Synchronicity's 2005/2006 line-up is definitely finished this time. Becky Brocato was already the only team member at the Malevsky Cup 2006 who confirmed to continue in 4-way competition at all. She has now joined the Fastrax Blue line-up and will not be available for any possible Synchronicity comebacks any longer. However, Synchronicity is theoretically still USPA's qualified national team for international events in 2007.

The Fastrax Blue line-up consists of experienced 4-way competitors. Kelley Frederickson was present at the Malevsky Cup 2006 with her team Thunder, as well. Unfortunately, she could only observe the exciting race between her team and Synchronicity. She had injured her knee and just recovered from the surgery. Coach Joey Jones filled her slot in Russia.

Brianne Thompson competed with Element Perris throughout the 2005 season. She replaced Jacquelyn O'Bryan in the Center Inside position for Elsinore Select throughout the 2006 season and collected her first international competition experiences at the World Meet 2006 in Germany.

Erin Murphy was directing the Southwest Skydiving League activities in 2006. She won the Advanced Class silver medals with Elsinore Gravity at the USPA Nationals 2005 in Perris with a 14.2 average and had to give up her Gravity slot when she took on a lot of management work in Perris and for the Southwest Skydiving League.

The Fastrax Blue line-up combines talent, skills and experiences. 500 training jumps and 20 hours of tunnel time will most likely lift the new team up to a very competitive performance and scoring level. Thomas Hughes is currently helping the team to make plans for the 2007 season, and several NSL/SSL meets are on the agenda. The NSL News will soon follow up with additional information.