posted May 28th, 2019 - The NSL News update on April 24th was posted after the completion FAI Indoor World Meet and covered Paraclete XP8's current position in the 8-way world.

The winner of the first FAI/IPC 8-way indoor competition at Weembi Lille has naturally the world's top position, even though it's not even guaranteed yet that XP8 will compete for the United States at the next FAI/IPC 8-way outdoor competition at the world meet in Tanay 2020. The Golden Knights will still try to win the national championships later this year and take the 8-way slot in the U.S. delegation for Russia.

An earlier story before the indoor world meet was related to the same topic and brought back memories of the last time when Paraclete's 8-way team tried to win the USPA Nationals in 2009. It was a close call, and only injury troubles probably stopped the 2009 lineup from qualifying and competing at the world meet in Menzelinsk 2010.

Current XP8 members John D'Annunzio and Kirk Verner were in the 2009 lineup, even though Kirk Verner was on the bench with a shoulder injury. Thomas Hughes was again in the XP8 lineup that won the USPA 8-way title last year, which happened without the Golden Knights on the 8-way leaderboard. Paraclete XP8 won with a 16.9 average, and the 18.7 average of 2009 is still the team's highest outdoor average.

---

USPA Nationals 2009		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open	12,5,Q	22,K,9	F,19,D,20	H,15,4	11,N,3	G,C,14,B	17,13,18	L,M,P,2	16,O,1	E,10,A,6	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	15	19	18	27	21	19	15	19	24	19	196	19.6
2	Golden Knights	15	18	17	23	23	19	15	19	23	17	189	18.9
3	Paraclete 8	14	19	17	23	22	18	11	19	24	20	187	18.7

Golden Knights and Paraclete XP8 at the USPA Nationals 2009

---

John D'Annunzio and Kirk Verner decided after the USPA Nationals 2018 to continue with the team and try again with a new lineup. Six of the 2018 members came back at the beginning of the 2019 season (Jeana Billings, Michelle Karamon, JaNette Lefkowitz, John D'Annunzio, Steve Lefkowitz, Kirk Verner). Andrew Happick and Brian Krause completed the new lineup.

It has been a very impressive road so far, with a 29.6 indoor average at the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship and a 31.6 at FAI's 8-way Challenge in France.

The April update then included JaNette and Steve Lefkowitz's announcement that they would not continue with XP8 for the outdoor season and the possible trip to Russian in 2020. Josh Hall and Thomas Hughes were back in the lineup discussion, together with XP8 alternate and reigning Golden Knights world champion Matt Davidson.

The XP8 personnel situation changed again before the outdoor training for the 2019 season began. Thomas Hughes and Josh Hall are not available for enough training this year, and John D'Annunzio and Kirk Verner went back to the drawing board.

---

USPA Nationals 2018			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		8,B,6	P,3,C,M	1,18,Q	22,E,16	11,17,H	L,12,13	7,A,20	19,14,9	J,5,4	G,15,10	Total	Avg
1	XP8	US	17	20	19	17	14	13	17	14	21	17	169	16.9
2	Arizona Airspeedish	US	13	22	19	18	15	15	15	13	16	19	165	16.5
3	Qatar Falcons	QA	16	21	18	14	15	15	16	13	17	16	161	16.1
4	Amphibious Attack Tigers	US	12	14	13	14	10	9	10	9	14	13	118	11.8
5	French Monsters	US	10	9	10	10	9	10	5	10	10	11	94	9.4
6	Blocksmiths XP	US	10	10	10	6	6	6	8	7	10	7	80	8.0

---

They were able to bring Steve Lefkowitz back into the 8-way lineup, even though JaNette Lefkowitz did not change her mind and continues only with the SDC Rhythm XP operation. There was still one open slot, and Matt Davidson was not able yet to commit fully for the active XP8 lineup.

It was eventually the third member of the Ranch 2nd Generation part in the XP8 lineup who agreed to copy the 4-way and 8-way agenda that Michelle Karamon and Jena Billings will follow at least this year. Christopher Kuhlmann, original R2G member, is the 8th member of the Paraclete XP8 lineup and completed his first outdoor training camp with his new team.

XP8's first 8-way training took place without Michelle Karamon who will be back this week for the next outdoor camp in Raeford. SDC Rhythm XP member Doug Barron was available to fill in for her. He was not new to Paraclete XP's 8-way team after training and competing with the 2014/2015 lineup (John D'Annunzio, Kirk Verner, Brian Krause, Andrew Happick, Doug Barron, Matt McLean, Will Pesek, Dalton Samuelson).

Doug Barron will step back and meet Andrew Happick and Steve Lefkowitz again in the SDC Rhythm XP lineup. R2G's Christopher Kuhlmann has the slot for the 2019 season.

---

FAI Indoor World Meet 2019			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		L,17,4		A,F,3,13		15,18,6		D,8,O,N		P,E,11,9		M,Q,J,16		C,K,19,22		10,1,7		5,G,B,2		H,21,12		Total	Avg
1	Paraclete XP8	US	38		34	-1	33		27		29	-1	43	-2	29		27	-3	28		28		316	31.6
2	France	FR	37		33	-1	29	-1	27		27	-2	44	-3	26		30		27		29		309	30.9
3	Tanay	RU	31	-2	32		29	-1	27		29		42		27		28	-1	25		27		297	29.7
4	Qatar Falcons	QA	32	-1	31	-1	29		27		30	-1	40		24	-3	25	-1	25		24	-2	287	28.7
5	MicroClim8	UK	25		19	-3	22		19		20	-2	31		19		20		19		18		212	21.2
6	Why Not?	PL	23		21		21		21		21		26	-1	18		19	-1	19		18	-1	207	20.7

---