posted Jul 8th, 2013 - Skydive Chicago held its first MWSL meet of the 2013 season on June 22, run by this year’s new MWSL director JaNette Lefkowitz and coached by Mikhail Markine, both from SDC Rhythm XP.

The event was especially noteworthy since SDC is the location of the USPA Nationals later this year.

With what appears to be the biggest turnout in MWSL history, ten teams took advantage of the opportunity to get a preview of what the big meet will be like.

While the official meet was six rounds, three of the teams continued to complete all ten, and a number of them exited from 10,500 feet to simulate the national competition as closely as possible.

The meet included experienced competitors like the Hawks, Jetstream Tango, Accelerando and 55 North, and also brand new teams like Awesome Sandwich and NADS, and pick-up teams like Tails You Lose, Grab on Courtneys 2 Bits, and You Can’t have Funneling without Fun.

Skydive Midwest fielded a team for the second year in a row - SDMW Direct Action – a team we expect to see grow over the season.

It was exciting to see competitors travel in from all over the region and even across the country to compete.

Earl Coggin was flying in from Florida to compete with SDC Accelerando, Greg Malter joining Tails You Lose from Colorado, and the 55 North and NADS crew travelling in from Southern Illinois and St Louis.

A number of teams and individuals stood out at the competition.

Participating in their first competition, team NADS stood out with their enthusiasm and their strong improvement over the course of the rounds.

That won them the coach’s choice award: $100 off on a tunnel camp with SDC Rhythm XP.

June 22nd, 2013		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
Rank	AA Class	L,E,C,13	J,15,22	20,19	G,O,11	F,1,9	K,8,P	7,D,M	N,14,Q	B,6,18	A,4,21	Total	Avg
1	SDC Jetstream Tango (US)	13	8	9	10	13	11	15	9	9	10	107	10.7
2	Hawks (US)	10	6	8	10	13	9	13	10	10	8	97	9.7
3	SDC Accelerando (US)	8	6	7	9	7	6	11	6	8	8	76	7.6
4	SDMW Direct Action (US)	7	3	4	6	3	5	-	-	-	-	28	4.7
5	Tails You Lose (US)	4	3	2	0	4	3	-	-	-	-	16	2.7
Rank	A Class	L,E,C	J,P,M	19,21	G,O,Q	F,9	K,8	7,D	N,2	B,6	A,4	Total	Avg
1	55 North (US)	6	4	5	6	8	5	7	6	9	8	64	6.4
2	GraBon Courtneys 2Bits (US)	4	6	8	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	18	6.0
Rank	Rookie	L,E,C	J,P,M	N,B,A,	G,O,Q	F,B,L	K,A,E	D,Q,J	N,P,G	B,M,O	Q,F,L	Total	Avg
1	Awesome Sandwich (US)	4	8	6	4	8	7	-	-	-	-	37	6.2
2	NADS (US)	0	2	3	4	2	0	-	-	-	-	11	1.8
3	You Cant Have Funneling Without FUN	0	0	2	2	0	0	-	-	-	-	4	0.7

Chris Goller, who shot video for both Jetstream Tango and Tails You Lose, won the Judge’s choice award for his excellent video: a free jump at the DZ of his choice.

Daniela Yin Yu was once again an able judge, evaluating all the jumps for the second meet of the season. With a team all-time high score of 10.7, Jetstream Tango won the grand prize of 10 free minutes at the Paraclete XP wind tunnel for coming in first in AA.

Building on the momentum of the first MWSL meet, the second meet of the 2013 season was a great success.

We’re looking forward to a continued strong turnout throughout the summer, and can’t wait to see how the competitors grow as they make their way toward Nationals, or just continue to have fun on the local level.

Written by Steve Lefkowitz - SDC Rhythm XP