posted Jul 28th, 2009 - Last weekend's events included the annual Karp Cup of the MidAtlantic Skydiving League, hosted by Skydive Cross Keys.

MASL Director Cherie Schuch reported what happened this year at the memorial event for Seth Karp, former JetStream member and MASL competitor, who lost his life in a landing accident in 2002.

MASL Karp Cup 2009

The 7th annual Karp Cup, hosted by Skydive Cross Keys, lucked out again this year with beautiful weather. Even though several jumpers were at Summerfest we still managed to draw six teams to the event, one AAA Class team, two AA Class teams and three teams in the Rookie Class.

AAA Class team Cross Keys Blue is aspiring to become the new "Teiwaz of the North", as Cross Keys has a good base of FS jumpers. Karl & Cherie Schuch will continue to compete at every meet with their original Cross Keys Aerodyne lineup or with other passionate 4-way competitors in the AAA Class.

The premiere of CK Blue included veteran skydiver Mark Kruse (Rigger, Football Champion, Tandem Master, AFF Instructor, Twin Otter Pilot, CReW Champion). Dennis Miller competed with team Blue Impulse in the AA Class at last year's MASL meets. He also attended the Jump for the Cause indoor competition with team Cross Keys.

The Karp Cup 2009 was his second time that he ever saw the AAA Class blocks. He has aspirations of attending his first USPA Nationals this year. Dennis Miller is on the look out for teammates for the AA/Intermediate Class competition at the USPA Nationals. He is also organizing the 4-way club at Cross Keys.

The Karp Cup was the first meet of the 2009 season for Cross Keys NRG, which consists of four former Controlled Descent members: Scott Macario, Bob Barnes, Sue Sweetman and videographer Larry Thomas. Former Air Pollution member Marty Schneider is new to the team. He switched from Center Outside to Center Inside this year after winning the Intermediate Class gold medal at the USPA Nationals 2007.

CK NRG has been training since May and just finished a second tunnel training camp. Then they brought up Pat McGowan for coaching on the meet weekend. CK NRG posted a very respectable 10.1 average after the six rounds.

UH OH is another new AA Class team. Melissa Huggins has just under 100 jumps. Kristoff Szliard is an avid 4-way competitor. Rob Fields trained and competed with Cross Keys Air Pollution and won an Intermediate Class gold medal at the USPA Nationals 2007. Mike Minnicozzi is a former 4-way competitor who has now returned to the sport after an extended layoff.

UH OH put themselvers together for the meet and scored a 5.5 average with no practice jumps at all with this lineup. It was great to see Melissa Huggins taking on the challenge and have a team with such a diverse skill level do so well together.

The most exciting part of the meet and for the league was to see three Rookie Class teams participate. N Between had already competed at the MASL June meet and had some personnel changes this time around.

Dana Hazelton was the only original team member who returned. She joined forces with Josephine Dorado, Art Gilman and former Golden Knight Neal Beverly. N Between had the highest average of 2.0 after four rounds. However, the Rookie Class gold medals went to Light & Variable since they completed six rounds. Light & Variable had one veteran RW flyer, Chester Schwartz, matched up with Stephanie Vaughan, Tom Kulig and Chris Schrier. Light & Variable completed the six rounds with an 1.8 average.

Team Eddowes was the last team to get started for the day. The team's first round didn't even start until noon. Team Eddowes will definitely get the team spirit award, after wearing matching Team Eddowes shirts, mooning the camera and wearing the jester hat in freefall in Round 4. Ali Duveen, Joe Vance, Paul Haaf and team captain Joe Hutcho had a blast...

The Karp Cup wouldn't be possible without all the help from supporters. Dinner was catered by Rita Miller, wife of competitor Dennis Miller. She served 80 people after the competition! The medal ceremony took place after the dinner, and then we drew the names of the winners of the sponsored raffle prizes. Thanks to all of our sponsors, which included Bev Suits, Sunrise Manufacturing, Aerodyne, SkySystems, Go Wear, Square3, PD, Icarus, Rigging Adventures, Skydive Cross Keys, and several area businesses.