posted Aug 17th, 2012 - Several other meets took place in the USA last weekend, while national championships in Europe caught a lot of the NSL News attention. The leaderboard shows a total of additional 28 teams who used the synchronized competition draw. One of those meets took place at the Chicagoland Skydiving Center.

Midwest Skydiving League Director Alan Butt reported that three teams returned to Chicagoland Skydiving’s new location in Rochelle, Illinois, this past Saturday for the August meet. The turnout was light, but the weather was perfect and the dropzone was very busy, he said.

The Angry Birds, who have been hampered by injuries all season, were challenged by pickup team Random Event. The Birds jumped to an early lead but Random Event recovered from a rough opening round to stay within striking distance.

The Birds entered the final round with an 8-point lead, but Random Event used the fast sequence to good effect, and the teams finished in a tie for the meet. Alan Butt suspected that Random Event’s performance may have been assisted by team member Matt Toth sporting a flashy vintage DeLand Majik shirt...

MWSL 2012 - August Meet		Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5	Round 6	Total	Avg
Rank	A Class	2,6	L,E,7	K,C,D	9,M	19,G	B,P,F	Total	Avg
1	Random Event (US)	1	5	5	8	4	9	32	5.3
1	CSC Angry Birds (US)	4	8	6	11	2	1	32	5.3
Rank	Rookie	O,H,J	L,E,Q	K,C,D	M,A,L	G,N,E	B,P,F	Total	Avg
1	ReRivals (US)	9	7	4	7	5	7	39	6.5

The ReRivals had no local competition in the Rookie Class last weekend. However, a total of five teams were eventually on the leaderboard in this category, and the ReRivals took the 2nd place behind Equinox from Lithuania. Alan Butt said that the situation at Chicagoland didn’t hamper the team's competitiveness as they scored an astonishing 6.5 average and nearly tripled the average at the last meet. Tail Patrick MacCaffray is still short of his 100th jump, making this a truly impressive performance.

ReRival’s scores easily earned them the XP Challenge prize of 10 minutes of tunnel time at the Paraclete XP wind tunnel in Raeford, NC for their “Most Improved” performance. Random Event won Rhythm’s Coach's’ Choice Award of $100 off a SDC Rhythm XP tunnel camp due to the team's successful pursuit of the Angry Birds.

Interestingly, two of the six rounds were identical across the two competition classes (Round 3 and Round 6), allowing for bragging rights between all the teams, Alan Butt said: "The Birds eked out the K-C-D Round 3 over the others, while Random Event came out on top with a 9-pointer in the final round."

SDC Rhythm XP’s JaNette Lefkowitz handled the coaching duties on Saturday. Alan Butt said that the teams benefitted big time: "An advantage of having only three teams was the amount of time she could spend with each competitor. Having almost personalized coaching from a world class skydiver for part of the price of the $20 entry fee was definitely a bonus."

He had also big news concerning the management of the Midwest Skydiving League at the meet's wrap-up:

"After eleven seasons at the helm, I will be turning over the league director responsibilities to Steve and JaNette Lefkowitz effective at the end of the season. Being MWSL League Director has afforded me the opportunity to meet many people and have many experiences that I otherwise would have missed. I am very proud of the accomplishments and experiences that MWSL and NSL have contributed to the sport of competitive skydiving during that time. I am also very pleased to have people like Steve and JaNette as my successors. With their leadership I am sure that the MWSL will continue to provide fun opportunities for skydivers to learn and compete in the sport’s most popular discipline. I also want to thank Kurt Gaebel for giving me this opportunity way back in November of 2001 and his continued support through the years. Likewise the DZ owners, staff, competitors and others that have made the MWSL what it is."