posted Jun 9th, 2016 - The recent Arizona Airspeed update was not only good news for the U.S. 4-way champion of the past nine years, who will most likely add the 10th consecutive USPA title to their collection later this year and after the Mondial 2016.

It will be the 6th USPA 4-way gold medal for Thomas Hughes, who will be forwarding his Outside Center slot to successor Ari Perelman after the USPA Nationals 2016. Only Mark Kirkby has collected more USPA 4-way gold medals - 16 of them since Arizona Airspeed's first 4-way title in 1994. Thomas Hughes ties the other three original Airspeed members (Jack Jefferies, Dan BC, Kirk Verner) and Craig Girard if Airspeed wins again this year.

The current Airspeed lineup has to leave behind once again the main challenger of the past four years, SDC Rhythm XP, for who the recent Airspeed announcement was good news, as well.

USPA Nationals 2012		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open	3,B,K,H	F,7,22	O,4,D,13	A,M,11,8	N,P,G,19	L,20,1	5,16,J	6,21,12	18,17,10	E,C,Q,15	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	30	28	24	23	34	22	28	19	20	37	265	26.5
2	SDC Rhythm XP	30	24	23	24	25	21	25	17	19	30	238	23.8

SDC Rhythm XP has tried to move to the top of the USPA leaderboard since the team was founded in 2007. The changing lineups moved closer to the U.S. top teams year by year until the 2012 lineup eventually ended up right behind Arizona Airspeed in 2nd place.

The Rhythm progression did not happen unnoticed in the Airspeed headquarters. In fact, the world champions of 2012 began to recruit their own new members from the new team in 2nd place, after offering Perris Fury's Josh Hall an Airspeed slot after the USPA Nationals 2010.

Thiago Gomes joined Airspeed at the end of the 2012 season after three years with SDC Rhythm XP, and Chris Farina made the same move at the same time after one year with Rhythm founders JaNette and Steve Lefkowitz.

USPA Nationals 2014		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open	L,F,3,D	8,C,Q,A	9,G,11	P,1,B,H	16,N,15	6,K,J,19	13,14,17	4,O,20	21,10,22	7,2,12	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	33	31	27	32	24	24	19	22	19	21	252	25.2
2	SDC Rhythm XP	31	26	23	27	21	19	19	19	17	18	220	22.0

The remaining Lefkowitz 2-way filled the open slots quickly and successfully with Christy Frikken and Mikhail Markine and finished once again in 2nd places behind the Airspeed lineup with their two former team members. Thiago Gomes and Chris Farina had won silver medals for the U.S.A. in Prostejov 2014 in the meantime.

JaNette and Steve Lefkowitz could continue with the same lineup (Christy Frikken, Mikhail Markine) for three years and added three more sets of silver medals to the Rhythm collection, while inching closer to Airspeed.

Then Airspeed began recruiting again at the end of the 2015 season to prepare for Thomas Hughes' exit after the Mondial 2016, and the first offer went to a member of the team in 2nd place. SDC Rhythm XP's tail Mikhail Markine happily agreed to the Airspeed offer, Christy Frikken stepped back, and JaNette and Steve Lefkowitz needed once again two new members.

USPA Nationals 2015		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open	J,H,2,8	6,D,18	F,9,L,O	1,17,E	K,19,N,P	3,7,5	4,A,B,12	11,16,M	15,Q,22	20,14,10	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	27	24	43	23	26	25	25	23	21	19	256	25.6
2	SDC Rhythm XP	22	21	42	25	27	20	23	20	20	16	236	23.6

It took only a few weeks this time until Rhythm had a complete new lineup, with Carolina Turbo XP members Andrew Happick and Doug Barron signing up for the near future. SDC Rhythm XP has been in full training swing ever since and attended three meets with the new lineup this year (Paraclete XP Indoor Championship, Shamrock Showdown, World Challenge). Then Airspeed's next recruiting campaign began.

Mikhail Markine, who was supposed to replace Thomas Hughes after the USPA Nationals 2016, had come into action earlier than expected when Chris Farina left Airspeed, and the reigning U.S. 4-way champions needed a new team member for the future.

Rhythm members were probably once again on the top of the Airspeed list, however, the recent announcement of Ari Perelman as Airspeed’s new Outside Center means at the same time that SDC Rhythm XP will continue with the same lineup and not fill an open Airspeed slot for the first time since 2012. The Sun Path Products NSL News will follow up later with the implications of the new situation...