posted Sep 24th, 2017 - Training for the USPA Nationals 2017 is slowly coming to an end on Sunday afternoon at Skydive Perris. The team briefing and competitors meeting is scheduled for 7 PM and will be one of the largest gatherings of 4-way fans in the history of the sport.

The briefing will be followed by the competition draw, and the teams will get busy with engineering the ten rounds and then preparing the meet opener for Monday morning as good as possible.

Sunday was a light training day for many teams who arrived on the weekend and tried to get in the California air over Skydive Perris to get familiar with the meet environment.

Skydive Midwest NEXT was one of the teams with a light training schedule on Sunday, and the complete lineup had enough time in the afternoon for the first NSL Live Talk from Perris after completing a few jumps.

The NSL News has brought the impressive NEXT team career to the attention of the audience with earlier updates. The last one on 12 September 2017 was posted after the September meet of the Midwest Skydiving League 2017, where NEXT finished with a 17.6 average.

The team's next competition in Perris offered the opportunity to meet the team for the NSL Live Talk.

It is nothing new that SDC Rhythm XP is somehow the role model team for NEXT. In fact, JaNette Lafkowitz has also been working with the team this year. She is now in the pursuit of the 4-way top spot in the U.S.A. that NEXT might set as a goal at some time in the future too.

However, the next step in the NEXT career will be discussed by the team after the conclusion of the USPA Nationals.

USPA Nationals 2017		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way VFS Open	D,O,B,17	Q,J,9,19	22,F,8	G,11,4	6,H,P,K	14,13,15	10,M,18	C,N,A,20	L,3,7	12,21,5	Total	Avg
1	SDC CORE	13	17	36	26	17	17	15	20	25	23	209	20.9
2	GK VFS	12	13	33	22	17	18	13	13	23	21	185	18.5
3	Arizona X-Force	12	14	22	17	9	14	6	11	18	19	142	14.2
Rank	AA Class	14,16	B,22	A,J,K	21,4	9,12	3,2	11,C	1,N	L,13	8,E	Total	Avg
1	Collective Pitch	9	8	17	9	10	11	16	13	13	19	125	12.5
2	SDMW Chemtrails	7	15	11	7	6	14	9	9	10	22	110	11.0
3	STF Gnarwhals	6	14	9	5	7	9	11	9	9	16	95	9.5
4	Taft Glitter Tornadoes	3	2	3	2	0	3	3	3	4	7	30	3.0

One team member has already completed the first event in Perris.

Matt Congdon also competed in 4-way VFS on Friday and Saturday and won the USPA silver medal with SDMW Chemtrails. He is one of the three original team members who are addicted to skydiving and 4-way training and competition.

The newest member, Daniele Smythe, who joined NEXT at the beginning of the 2016 season, attended her first national championships last year and won the Advanced Class gold medal with 500+ jumps in her logbook.

The whole team remembers well the excitement during the final judging in Eloy. NEXT knew the scoring number they needed to match or better SDC Rhythm XP's Advanced Class winning average of 2008. Daniele Smythe eventually won the gold medal at her first USPA Nationals with the highest Advanced Class average (16.9) in USPA history.

Rhythm followed up with an 18.1 average in the Open Class a year later, and NEXT could match this number, as well, beginning to work on it tomorrow...