posted Nov 1st, 2017 - The story of Northwest Skydiving League team Seattle Swift has been covered by the NSL News several times since the current lineup came together at the beginning of the 2016 season.

Swift trained the AA Class dive pool and competed in the Intermediate Class at the USPA Nationals 2016 where they finished in 1st place with a 14.7 average. The team was not eligible for USPA medals by then and made new plans for the 2017 season.

The same lineup decided to leave behind the AA Class and potentially USPA medals in the Intermediate Class and move up into the AAA Class with the beginning of the 2017 season. The complete lineup attended two NWSL meets this year to prepare for the national championships and posted several Indoor Cloud League scores for the Open/Advanced Class sequences (AAA - AA) at iFLY Seattle events. Team members also participated as player coaches with other ICL lineups.

Then it was time for the USPA Nationals 2017, where Seattle Swift would be eligible for medals this time. They were not able to keep up with the two top teams in Perris (Ranch 2nd Generation, Air Force Storm) while they were in full contention for USPA bronze medals.

USPA Nationals 2017		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Advanced	O,4,9	G,21,A,H	N,D,J,14	L,16,12	K,19,6	E,2,10	P,11,15	17,3,22	F,7,1	Q,5,M,20	Total	Avg
1	Ranch 2nd Generation	18	20	17	15	16	14	15	14	18	17	164	16.4
G	Fast4ward XP	17	19	19	14	16	15	13	13	19	15	160	16.0
2	AF Storm	17	16	17	14	16	14	12	12	17	17	152	15.2
3	Four Horsemen	17	17	14	14	14	13	11	13	12	17	142	14.2
4	Seattle Swift	15	17	13	13	14	13	14	10	17	15	141	14.1

The 1-point battle against the experienced lineup of Four Horsemen turned out to be the most exciting part of the Advanced Class competition for USPA medals. Four Horsemen dominated and created a 4-point lead through Round 6.

However, two bad rounds in the second half of the meet allowed Swift to get close enough and have very realistic chances to win this duel, going into Round 10 with a 1-point lead.

However, Four Horsemen had the nerve and the experience to turn the table at the very last minute and eventually stepped onto the USPA Advanced Class podium. Seattle Swift was once again very close to bringing back home USPA medals and left Perris empty-handed.

However, the NWSL team still posted their Indoor Cloud League scores for iFLY Seattle in September, and some of the team members were back in October to forward their 4-way knowledge and experiences to the participants at the monthly events. Swift team mates Djordje Mandaric and Dmitry Rudchenko were in different lineups to help posting the October total of 133 points.

Deb Correia organized one ICL event last month with four different lineups, and each one turned in at least one highscore for the iFLY Seattle team.

iFLY Seattle - October	AAA	AA	A	RRR	RR	R	Total
Teams	O,9,F,16	Q,9,8	Q,F,9	J,E,O	M,Q,F	M,Q	Total
Jeramy Eggum, Jerome Jeal, Bill Selig, Djordje Mandaric	23	18	-	-	-	-	41
Nat Mote, Randy Barbee, Kurt Ferstl, Dmitry Rudchenko	-	-	25	-	-	-	25
Olga Nikolova, Gary Dutton, Doug Puchalski, Deb Correia	-	-	-	22	-	-	22
Erin Hundtofte, Dan Gillette, Dave Correia, Steve Platt	-	-	-	-	25(-4)	20	45
iFLY Seattle's Best of October	23	18	25	22	25	20	133

Deb Correia said that she had a new ICL participant with Dan Gillette, who joined the iFLY Seattle team for the first time.

Along with Erin Hundtofte and player coaches Dave Correia and Steve Platt, he posted highscores for two of the Rookie Class sequences (R - RR), including a 25-pointer after four point deductions. He had competed at NWSL outdoor meets in 2016 with Get a Grip. Deb Correia said that he had a great time and plans to attend more ICL events.

Deb Correia also pointed out that her player coaches finally met the ICL requirements. The ICL guidelines define a player coach as "a person who has scored 13+ average in AAA at any outdoor meet or 17+ average in AAA at any tunnel meet."

Seattle Swift finished with a 14.1 average at the USPA Nationals. The complete Swift lineup had achieved the 13+ average already at the NWSL July meet, which turned the team into a medal contender in September, as the NSL News reported on 20 July. The results in Perris confirmed the player-coaching status clearly.

The iFLY Seattle team now needs more new participants. Deb Correia said that one of her regulars, Dale Findlay, recently moved back home to Australia, and that Jerome Jeal will be leaving at the end of the year: "They have both been competing in AAA and will be greatly missed!! Doug Puchalski, who has been attending the past couple of months, is also moving to Utah for a couple of months, so he also won't be participating..."