posted Nov 3rd, 2018 - Ranch 2nd Generation (R2G) has been the shooting star in U.S. 4-way competition in the most recent years, as the NSL News has pointed out several times ever since the team was founded in 2015.

The lineup of 2016 and 2017 (Michelle Karamon, Brenn Richards, Christopher Kuhlmann and Joey Marshall, with Sonic on camera) entered the AAA Class competition at the USPA Nationals 2016 with a 15.0 average and a 2nd place in the Advanced Class. A year later, they won in the same USPA category with a 16.5 average.

The lineup changed this year when Brenn Richards stepped back at the end of the 2017 season, and former SDMW NEXT member Chris Haslam took her tail slot. He had won a USPA Advanced Class gold medal with his previous team and a 16.8 average when R2G placed 2nd in 2016.

Ranch 2nd Generation with Chris Haslam competed in the USPA Open Class and lifted the team's average to 18.8 at Chicagoland Skydiving this year, which earned the 5th place on the Open Class leaderboard. The 18.8 average was not even the highest meet result in 2018, as R2G had finished with 19.0 at the Paraclete XP Summer Classic in June.

USPA Nationals 2018		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open	J,19,K,22	P,13,A,E	H,G,Q,B,21	9,2,L	C,14,4	O,16,3	1,15,10	M,20,11	F,D,18,6	5,12,17	Total	Avg
1	Ranch 2nd Generation	17	22	20	22	17	18	15	17	21	19	188	18.8
Roster: Kamuran Bayrasli (Video), Chris Haslam (Tail), Michelle Karamon (Inside Center), Christopher Kuhlmann (Outside Center), Joey Marshall (Point)
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
Roster: Kamuran Bayrasli (Video), Michelle Karamon (Inside Center), Christopher Kuhlmann (Outside Center), Joey Marshall (Point), Brenn Richards (Tail)
USPA Nationals 2016		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Advanced	20,D,E,22	M,9,5	12,8,7	H,L,16,15	F,A,N,J,17	G,6,3	K,B,Q,P,C	18,10,11	13,21,4	14,1,19	Total	Avg
1	Ranch 2nd Generation	13	17	13	15	20	14	24	11	13	10	150	15.0
Roster: Kamuran Bayrasli (Video), Michelle Karamon (Inside Center), Christopher Kuhlmann (Outside Center), Joey Marshall (Point), Brenn Richards (Tail)

The NSL News story on 19 September 2018 had featured the combined leaderboard of all AAA Class teams in 4-way Open and 4-way Advanced, including this year's Advanced Class winner, Savage XP.

Savage XP, with player coach Kirk Verner in the lineup, finished right behind Ranch 2nd Generation on the combined leaderboard with the 17.4 Advanced Class record average that wiped out the previous 16.9 held by SDC Rhythm XP (2008) and SDMW NEXT (2016).

This year's Advanced Class winner does not seem to continue next year, and Ranch 2nd Generation used the opportunity to recruit a new member for the tail slot.

Chris Haslam will not come back after one year with R2G, and Savage XP's tail, Jeana Billings, will take the same slot for her new team.

Jeana Billings seems to be a perfect for Ranch 2nd Generation, as she is also looking back at an impressive progression in the same time period. She also still competed in the AA/Intermediate Class with Southern Mix (4th) when R2G (16th) and SDMW NEXT (1st) were both in the same category at the USPA Nationals 2015.

USPA Nationals 2018		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open/Advanced Combined	J,19,K,22	P,13,A,E	H,G,Q,B,21	9,2,L	C,14,4	O,16,3	1,15,10	M,20,11	F,D,18,6	5,12,17	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	23	29	34	28	23	24	19	24	26	25	255	25.5
2	SDC Rhythm XP	20	25	33	26	20	18	17	21	23	20	223	22.3
3	Airspeed Odyssey	20	25	28	22	18	20	17	19	20	17	206	20.6
4	Defiance	19	23	25	21	18	21	15	21	21	19	203	20.3
5	Ranch 2nd Generation	17	22	20	22	17	18	15	17	21	19	188	18.8
6	Savage XP	18	17	24	17	14	17	14	18	20	15	174	17.4
7	Spaceland Lite	15	19	24	19	16	18	12	17	17	14	171	17.1
8	Phoenix XP	17	17	21	18	13	17	12	16	16	14	161	16.1
9	Seattle Swift	16	15	18	12	13	16	12	18	15	13	148	14.8
10	Elsinore Elevate	14	17	19	17	13	14	10	14	14	15	147	14.7

The same three teams moved up together into the AAA/Advanced Class competition of 2016 where they finished 1st (NEXT), 2nd (R2G) and 13th (Southern Mix). The two USPA medal winners stepped up again in 2017, this time into USPA's 4-way Open Class, while Southern Mix turned into an all-female team and started in the AA/Intermediate Class with the new lineup.

Jeana Billings took the outside center slot for a year before she switched to tail with Savage XP. With her new team she moved from an 8th place with Southern Mix and a 10.9 average in the AA/Intermediate Class of 2017 to the 1st place in the AAA/Advanced Class of 2018 with the 17.4 record average.

Her new R2G team mate Michelle Karamon knew her from their common side project with the Paraclete XP 8-way team where they spent two years together. XP8 won this year's 8-way competition for the first time, as the NSL News reported on 27 September.

Jeana Billings and Michelle Karamon will now continue together with both teams next year, Ranch 2nd Generation and Paraclete XP8. R2G is planning for approx. 250 jumps and the 8-way team seems to be trying to defend the USPA gold medals, even when the Golden Knights will be back. XP8 has the goal of 500 training jumps, and the first camp is scheduled for November...