posted Sep 16th, 2017 - The Northern California Skydiving League held two simultaneous World Tunnel League Meets last Wednesday September 13th at both of its host tunnels - iFLY SF Bay and iFLY Sacramento.

A total of four teams competed, two at SF Bay and two at iFLY Sacramento. The same four teams train and compete regularly together, with two of them heading to the USPA Nationals later this month. Most of the teams at the NCSL Tunnel Kickers are pick-up teams for each of the particular events, organized after individual registrations, while the World Tunnel League meets are an exciting new event for the trained teams, as they provide the challenge of a 6- or 10-round tunnel meet.

The DeLoreans, with NCSL Director Lori Connor and NCSL coaches Matt Stephens, Jason Russell, and Steven Walker in the lineup, regularly train at the iFLY Sacramento Tunnel Kickers in both AAA and AA and also competed at the June and July World Tunnel League meets in the AA Class.

The team decided to make the move to the AAA Class in the World Tunnel League and finished with an 18.5 average. The DeLoreans posted a 16-pointer for the double slot-switcher in Round 1 (E-9-C-5) after two point deductions and said that they are looking forward to increasing their score when flying the same sequence next week at iFLY Sacramento's Tunnel Kicker (September 21). The DeLoreans then scored 31 points for the fast sequence in Round 6 (M-B-7-O). Block 7 was also part of the AA and A Class draws in the same round (M-B-7), and all NCTL teams scored well.

World Tunnel League September 2017		1	2	3	4	5	6	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	E,9,C,5	A,18,11	J,P,G,17	N,6,3	Q,D,L,14	M,B,7,O	Total	Avg
1	DeLoreans	16	13	13	17	21	31	111	18.5
Rank	AA Class	E,9,11	A,18,21	J,P,G,O	N,6,H	Q,D,L,14	M,B,7	Total	Avg
1	Meta4	19	14	22	19	19	25	118	19.7
2	4Tune	12	13	22	17	17	23	104	17.3
Rank	A Class	E,C,9	A,O,F	J,P,G	N,6	Q,D,L	M,B,7	Total	Avg
1	Err Speed	21	33	21	14	19	23	131	21.8

Meta4 took the top spot in the AA Class with the 19.6 average, which is 2.9 higher compared to the team's August results.

The team scored 19 points in Round 1, which was identical with the Indoor Cloud League sequence for September in this category (E-9-11) and did not beat the previous 19-pointer.

4Tune had an alternate in the lineup, with Volker Haag flying the tail slot for Vignesh Elamvazhuthi. 4Tune finished with a 17.3 point average, which is four average points higher than at the August meet.

Both Meta4 and 4Tune are now heading to the USPA Nationals next week and used the WTL September meet for training purposes.

Two members of Meta4, Julius Frank and Deanna Frank, won USPA's Intermediate Class gold medals with R4 at the USPA Nationals 2008.

The Franks have been player coaching Ethan DeLano and Jessica Lee since earlier this year, who have both not competed yet at national championships.

USPA Nationals 2008		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	Intermediate Class	O,H,20	B,8,E	2,11	N,14,7	D,K,J,19	9,13	C,1,22	4,Q,L	6,18,F	15,A,21	Total	Avg
1	R4	14	16	11	11	15	14	10	15	14	11	131	13.1
2	Air Force Encore	12	16	12	11	12	14	10	14	12	11	124	12.4
3	Slipstream	15	14	10	12	14	13	9	12	13	10	122	12.2
4	AZ Throttle	11	12	11	12	13	11	7	13	11	11	112	11.2
5	Ranch Vortex	12	14	10	11	10	11	8	10	12	10	108	10.8
6	FSC Wind Damaged	12	11	9	11	12	11	9	11	10	10	106	10.6
7	Liquidity	12	12	9	10	12	11	6	8	8	9	97	9.7
7	Air Force Vertigo	9	11	9	9	10	11	9	12	9	8	97	9.7
9	Flash Point	9	10	10	10	10	8	7	11	11	10	96	9.6
10	Kaleidoscope	11	11	9	10	10	8	7	9	8	10	93	9.3
11	CK	11	12	8	10	11	9	8	10	5	8	92	9.2
12	Air Force Raptor	11	10	8	5	10	8	8	9	9	9	87	8.7
13	West Point Autobots	11	11	8	6	10	6	9	7	8	10	86	8.6
14	Focus 4	8	8	9	7	10	6	8	12	8	6	82	8.2
15	Don't Panic!	10	8	7	8	7	8	6	11	8	7	80	8.0
16	Perris Jimani	7	8	6	9	10	7	5	9	8	5	74	7.4
17	Perris Scattered Showers	8	9	7	7	5	7	6	9	6	6	70	7.0
18	GRN 5	6	6	7	9	6	6	4	8	6	6	64	6.4
19	Elsinore Havoc	5	8	5	5	5	4	4	6	6	5	53	5.3
20	SDC On the Fly	5	6	6	6	4	6	4	4	6	5	52	5.2
21	Boyd LBL	7	5	5	6	7	1	5	7	3	3	49	4.9
22	Perris Momentum	5	6	5	4	6	3	5	6	4	4	48	4.8
23	Birthday Pahtay	6	6	3	4	5	4	4	3	4	6	45	4.5
24	Random 5	5	3	4	6	4	0	4	7	6	5	44	4.4

4Tune's regular lineup (Sylvain Florand, Lukasz Weber, Mahlon Chute and Vignesh Elamvazhuthi) will also be competing in the AA/Intermediate Class at Skydive Perris, and it will be the first time for three of the team members. Only Sylvain Florand has previous championship experiences. He competed with his September team mate Volker Haag for Singularity as a guest at the USPA Nationals 2014 in the Intermediate Class, placing unofficially between first and second place.

ErrSpeed, with John Verley, Lisa Larkin, Ron Ashcraft and Calli Waltrip in the lineup, performed the A Class draw at iFLY Sacramento and posted a 21.8 point average, which is three average points higher (21.8 - 18.8) than in August.

The team's 33-pointer in Round 2 was the highest scoring number of the meet, and the 23-pointer in Round 6 tied AA Class team 4Tune's score in the same round for the identical sequence (M-B-7).

iFLY SF Bay is now following up with 3-way Scrambles next Wednesday (September) 20th, while iFLY Sacramento has the next NCSL Tunnel Kicker scheduled for next Thursday.