posted Jul 31st, 2008 - The Midwestern weather thus far in 2008 has been the worst for skydivers in at least fifteen years, but that trend abated for us Saturday, and Meet 3 took place under nearly ideal conditions.

The weather was not the only thing that improved dramatically from the June meet. We had five teams returning for the competition at Chicagoland Skydiving, and every one of them significantly improved their scores from June. The meet would also benefit from the presence of well known 4-way expert Kirk Verner.

In the AAA Class we again had the two best known MWSL teams: SDC Furies and CSC Rhythm XP. Rhythm took full advantage of the burner in round one to post a new record score for an MWSL team with a 25-pointer. The old mark, held jointly by the SDC Furies and SDC Quattro, had been 22 points.

Rhythm kept their record setting momentum flowing throughout the meet and finished with a 17-point meet average, also a new high for an MWSL team. Rhythm's performance compared favorably with the results of the top European teams who also competed on Saturday.

The Furies, despite limited practice opportunities, still managed to add two points to their performance from last month, pushing their average back into the double digit range at 10.8 after six rounds.

In the AA Class Team 5 (aka Team Zagoda) benefited from the competitive skydiving debut of WGN-TV anchorwoman Jackie Bange as well as the return of veteran skydiver Andy Boyd from the disabled list. Despite never having jumped together, Team Five put up an impressive 7.2 average for the meet.

The Wisconsin team Just4Fun also sharpened their game and kept things close with a 6.0 average for the meet. Just4Fun praised the coaching they received from Kirk and attributed much of their improvement to his insights and coaching style.

Normally the "PD Challenge" is awarded to the team which most outperforms their previous performance, but at the June meet it had gone to the team that came closest instead, as none topped the previous scores.

That was not a problem last weekend, as every team outperformed the scoes of the June meet. In fact, every team added at least two points to the previous scores, a remarkable accomplishment. But it was the sole A Class team, Victory Hop, which improved the most, and by more than doubling the total took the PD Challenge.

Meet coach Kirk Verner also served as the meet judge and so had the opportunity to view all the dives from the meet. Kirk complimented the teams on their good 4-way habits, pointing out that all teams showed good awareness of who had the key and so were very easy to judge.

It was great to have Kirk back to coach again; thanks to Chicagoland Skydiving and Rhythm for making him available. We hope to see him back next season. And speaking of seeing people back, Veronica Golub, who started out competing with MWSL Rookie Class teams in 2003 and went on to medal in the Advanced Class at the USPA Nationals only two years later, stopped by to say hello during the meet.

As is usually the case, it seems to take forever for the season to get here and then it races by. The July Meet was already the final meet at Chicagoland Skydiving Center in 2008. This was CSC's tenth consecutive year of hosting MWSL meets; thanks to Doug, Lisa, Melissa and the rest of the CSC staff for their continued hospitality.

Our next meet, the last one of 2008, is on August 23rd at Skydive Chicago. Todd and Lisa DeSimone of SDC Quattro will be our meet coaches. With any luck, perhaps the weather will finally get its act together and everyone can actually make some training jumps between now and then.

Alan Butt, MWSL Director