posted Jun 5th, 2017 - The Midwest Skydiving League launched its 2017 season last weekend at Skydive Chicago. Five newly formed teams competed in two of the four NSL categories, three from Chicagoland Skydiving in the A Class, and two home teams from Skydive Chicago in the AA Class.

One of the MWSL teams of the past years is still the reigning USPA champion in the AAA/Advanced Class. Skydive Midwest NEXT won the gold medals at the USPA Nationals 2016 with a 16.9 average, eight years after MWSL team SDC Rhythm XP had won the USPA Advanced Class with exactly the same average.

SDC Rhythm XP has become one of the best 4-way teams in the world by now, and NEXT is moving up into the AAA/Open Class this year, after launching the 2017 competition season with an 18.7 average at the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2017.

Original Rhythm member Steve Lefkowitz was at Skydive Chicago last weekend to run the meet and help future MWSL top competitors through the first meet of the year, while his own team is getting ready to take on Arizona Airspeed again this weekend at Paraclete.

MWSL 2017 - June Meet		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AA Class	Q,C,18	20,15	19,A,M	9,H,1	6,K,D	B,P,N,O	2,E,4	7,22	11,F,8	14,21	Total	Avg
1	SDC Falcon	6	5	7	7	8	13	-	-	-	-	46	7.7
2	SDC Connect 4	6	5	5	7	8	12	7	6	7	5	68	6.8
Rank	A Class	Q,C,M	D,O,4	19,A	9,H	6,K	B,P,N	2,E	7,J	F,8	21,L	Total	Avg
1	CSC Legos	5	4	5	7	4	5	-	-	-	-	30	5.0
2	CSC Genesis	4	3	4	5	6	7	-	-	-	-	29	4.8
3	CSC Get a Grip	1	0	0	2	2	2	-	-	-	-	7	1.2

Steve Lefkowitz said that one of the new teams is a combination of returning MWSL competitors with a new team name. SDC Connect 4 member Stanley Bukala trained and competed with SDMW eXtreme last year. Joanne Stubbs and Ian Halliday were A Class team mates with SDC Mockups. Gorka Amian completes the SDC Connect 4 lineup, and Kevin Naftzger was filming the team last weekend.

SDC Falcon, who won the meet after six rounds by three points, has an even more experienced lineup. Alex Bucevicius trained and competed with CSC Swift last year and was still with his previous team at the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2017. He has now joined forces with TJ Hine, Sally and Chuck Finley.

The three visiting teams from Chicagoland Skydiving Center competed in the A Class. Former Survival Instinct member Anne Webster was guiding CSC Get A Grip through the first six competition rounds of the year as a player coach. Former Suboptimal member Andy Boyd was the player coach for CSC Genesis.

Genesis had a fierce battle for the top spot with the third A Class team from Chicagoland, which the CSC Legos won by one single point. The next MWSL meet will be hosted by Skydive Midwest at the end of the month.