posted Feb 17th, 2019 - The NSL New reported recently that the U.S. national team in 4-way Women at the FAI World Meet 2018, Phoenix XP, is back with a new lineup and a new 2-year plan. The same update mentioned briefly that Perris Force, who had finished right behind Phoenix XP on USPA's 4-way Open Class leaderboard, is coming back with a new lineup for the 2019 season, as well.

Original Perris Fury member Christy Frikken is the leader and player coach for Perris Force. Her former team Perris Fury trained and competed between 2005 and 2011 and became one of the best 4-way teams in the world. Her team mate Josh Hall joined Arizona Airspeed in 2011 and became 4-way world champion at the FAI World Meet 2012 in Dubai.

Christy Frikken and Chris Farina both joined SDC Rhythm XP in turns and challenged Airspeed once again with a new team. Chris Farina also joined Airspeed eventually, while Christy Frikken spent three years between 2013 and 2015 with Rhythm and then stepped back to work on different projects, including player-coach teams.

The original Perris Fury lineup had a reunion at the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2016, where they finished with a 26.3 average, five points behind the new SDC Rhythm XP lineup with Andrew Happick and Doug Barron.

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	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	Spaceland Lite	15	19	24	19	16	18	12	17	17	14	171	17.1
7	Phoenix XP	17	17	21	18	13	17	12	16	16	14	161	16.1
8	Perris Force	12	11	21	17	13	13	12	17	14	14	144	14.4
9	Spaceland Dallas 350	17	0	17	17	13	16	13	14	20	16	143	14.3
10	Victorious Secret	11	13	16	12	10	9	9	12	13	10	115	11.5
11	SNE Fly Girls	8	8	10	12	9	11	9	9	8	8	92	9.2
12	Spaceland Heatwave	9	11	11	6	6	9	7	7	9	9	84	8.4

Christy Frikken and her Perris Force 2018 team mates Grace Katz and Shannon Catalano are coming back with new point ShawnaRae Miliano, who replaces Sandra van der Bilt.

Shannon Catalano, Grace Katz and Sandra van der Bilt actually launched the Perris Force with Jessica Haugaard in the 2017 lineup, while Christy Frikken was coaching the team. Christy Frikken joined the active lineup as the player-coach in 2018.

Shannon Catalano has been flying the tail slot for Perris Force since 2016, the team's first year. She was a member of Perris Air Sharks, bronze medal winner in 8-way Advanced at the USPA Nationals 2017, as well as of Perris Funky Nuggets, USPA bronze medal winner in 8-way Intermediate in 2018. She has accumulated approx. 1,500 jumps in her five years of skydiving and works as an AFF instructor and load organizer at Skydive Perris.

Grace Katz has been skydiving for ten years and has over 4,500 jumps. She said that she totally fell in love with 4-way after filling in for an injured jumper: "After that short season I knew 4-way was my new love." She formed her first 4-way team with her husband and another couple.

Phoenix XP and Perris Force at the USPA Nationals 2018 - Footage provided by USPA/Omniskore

Grace Katz did not have a 4-way Women team in her mind at that time. However, her first team came to an end due to a pregnancy, which she considered "the best way to lose a team mate". Original Arizona Airspeed member and 4-way world champion Dan BC stepped in for the USPA Nationals when she thought that 4-way could not get any better.

Her stars really aligned when she put together the first Perris Force lineup, which was also her first all-female 4-way team. She thinks that the 2019 lineup with player coach Christy Frikken and ShawnaRae Miliano is reaching the level of excellence she has been dreaming of in the last four years.

ShawnaeRae Miliano trained and competed with TSC Cadence in 2017 and 2018 and won the USPA gold medals in 4-way Intermediate last year. She is the new member for the 2019 season, and maybe for another year, if Perris Force wins the 4-way Women competition at the USPA Nationals 2019.

Phoenix XP and Perris Force will meet each other again at the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2019, both teams for the first time with the new lineups. The starting point of the race towards the 4-way Women top spot in the United States and the tickets to the FAI World Meet 2020 in Tanay, Russia, will be set in Raeford next week...