posted Sep 2nd, 2010 - The Midwest Skydiving League meets this season have been plagued by threatening weather forecasts, but Saturday proved a stunning exception with a great forecast and terrific jumping conditions all day long. It was the fourth and final meet of the MWSL season and was held at Skydive Chicago, who will also be hosting the USPA Nationals 2010 in less than two weeks. We had seven teams competing, three of which were making their MWSL debuts.

The most popular category this time was the AA Class with three teams: Suboptimal, Mideast Skydiving League team Necessary Equipment and JetStream Tango moving up from the A Class in preparation for USPA's Intermediate Class. Despite their third roster in as many meets, Suboptimal continued to control this category by matching their scores of the July meet with an 8-point average, including a nice 9-pointer in Round 2 (A-22-E).

The race between Necessary Equipment, with Rhythm member Rob Radez filling in for the missing Point, and JetStream for second place was very close with the two teams being tied through five rounds. Necessary Equipment outscored Jetstream 6 to 4 in the tough sequence of Round 6 to beat out the SDC team. There were two sets of trophies awarded in the AA Class for the season, as well. Suboptimal took gold with the most meet league points (8), after collecting one point for each meet, plus one point for each outscored team. The absent Pieces of 8 won silver.

August 28th, 2010		Round1	Round2	Round3	Round4	Round5	Round6	Round7	Round8	Round9	Round10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	12,N,10	A,22,E,19	P,K,1,14	5,18,4	B,C,J,D,21	17,11,20	2,O,G,H	L,F,Q,9	15,3,8	M,16,6	Total	Avg
1	SDC Furies XP	11	11	14	7	15	11	15	18	11	11	124	12.4
Rank	AA Class	N,19,14	A,22,E	P,K,1	18,4	B,C,J,D	11,20	2,O,G	L,F,Q,9	15,8	M,6,21	Total	Avg
1	Suboptimal	6	9	8	7	13	5	-	-	-	-	48	8.0
2	Necessary Equipment	5	7	6	5	5	6	-	-	-	-	34	5.7
3	Jetstream Tango	4	6	6	5	7	4	-	-	-	-	32	5.3
Rank	A Class	N,19	A,E,D	P,K,G	4,9	B,C,J	21,7	2,O	L,F,Q	8,H	M,6	Total	Avg
1	SDC Hawks	7	8	8	6	8	7	-	-	-	-	44	7.3
2	Plunge Bunnies	5	2	7	1	8	5	-	-	-	-	28	4.7
Rank	Rookie	N,O,L	A,E,D	P,K,G	F,H,N	B,C,J	Q,M,A	O,E,P	L,F,Q	H,D,K	M,G,F	Total	Avg
1	ArchRivals	5	4	4	9	5	3	-	-	-	-	30	5.0

The A Class competition featured two teams with Rhythm player coaches: Steve Lefkowitz’s SDC Hawks and JaNette’s Plunge Bunnies. The Hawks had worked with Steve during the season, while the Bunnies were a pick up team and the Hawk’s training paid off. They scored an impressive 7.3 average and led from the opening round. The Hawks were rewarded with one of the two meet prizes for their performance.

Somewhat oddly, the season trophies for first and second place in this category went to two teams that did not compete at the second August meet. JetStream Tango (1st) had moved up and competed in the AA Class and the absent SDC Flying Fish (2nd).

The A Class teams made a sweep of the two MWSL season prizes as well. The Fish chose 15 minutes of tunnel training with Rhythm at Paraclete XP, while the JetStream members are still deciding on their prize.

Midwest Skydiving League teams at the August 14 meet

While the Rhythm members were split across three teams for this meet, thanks to the SDC Furies the AAA Class was still represented. The Furies completed all ten rounds with an impressive final score of a 12.4 average, good for a tie for 2nd place among all AAA Class teams competing internationally last weekend. The Furies won the remaining meet prize with their results.

And for the third time in four meets, the Archway ArchRivals were the only team representing our Rookie Class. The ArchRivals scored their highest round ever, the 9-pointer in Round 4, and finished with a 5.0 average. The ArchRivals, along with JetStream Tango, was one of the two teams competing in all four MWSL meets this season. The team from Archway took home the first place trophies for the MWSL Rookie Class team of 2010.

SDC Furies at the Midway Battle 2010

Our final meet of 2010 ran extremely smoothly; in fact we had to slow down the pace after Round 2 so the packers could keep up. Thanks to Karry Schwartz and the staff at SDC for a great meet and a great season, their 9th hosting MWSL meets. They get to do it all over again on a dramatically larger scale beginning September 11th. Dan Antic was our judge and once again SDC allowed us to use their CamScore system. Thanks to Allen Heitz for setting up the system and routing meet video to the monitor in the hangar. Thanks to Rhythm for serving once again as our meet coaches. Also thanks to our sponsors Paraclete XP and SkyVenture Colorado.

It was another successful season for the Midwest Skydiving League with strong participation, impressive scores and four fun meets. Our Meet 3 witnessed SDC Rhythm XP’s first 20+ average score at a meet completing all scheduled rounds, the highest ever for a MWSL team. The SDC Furies competed for their 8th straight season, as did Just4Fun. And we used the high tech CamScore system for the first time ever. Thanks to everyone who supported the league this season and good luck to those who will be competing at Skydive Chicago later this month. I hope to see you all back in 2011.

Writen by Alan Butt, Midwest Skydiving League Director