posted Jun 20th, 2019 - The Golden Knights won the Paraclete XP Summer Classic in the absence of Arizona Airspeed and SDC Rhythm XP. This is not a big surprise, as the 4-way lineups of the Golden Knights 8-way team have always placed right behind the two 4-way expert teams, with only a few exceptions.

Ranch 2nd Generation had finished only seven points behind (263 - 256) a similar Golden Knights lineup at the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2019, which was a promising start into the 2019 duel with the U.S. Army's 4-way team. However, the outdoor experience of the Golden Knights lineup last weekend did not allow R2G to get anywhere close.

Former team captain Sean Sweeney had competed at the indoor meet in February. Jesse Stahler, 8-way world champion of 2014 and 2016 who switched to 4-way VFS in 2017, joined Drew Starr, Jennifer and Matt Davidson for the 4-way competition at the Paraclete XP Summer Classic.

The NSL News mentioned earlier that the Golden Knights have won the USPA 4-way bronze medals consecutively between 2014 and 2017 before missing the USPA Nationals 2018. The 4-way Women team won USPA bronze in 2014 and 2015. Jennifer Davidson and Matt Davidson, Sean Sweeney and Kurt Isenbarger added two more sets of bronze medals in 2016 and 2017.

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Paraclete XP Summer Classic 2019		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	2,16,E	P,L,12,A	3,1,5	11,G,19	9,22,15	K,H,10,21	7,17,O	F,N,M,J,20	B,6,4	8,C,Q,13	Total	Avg
1	Golden Knights	19	24	18	19	19	19	24	29	22	19	212	21.2
2	Ranch 2nd Generation	18	21	14	16	15	20	21	24	19	16	184	18.4
3	Vega XP	11	13	13	12	11	15	15	23	15	13	141	14.1
4	SDC RhEvolution XP	12	12	11	14	11	12	14	20	15	15	136	13.6
5	TSC Cadence	9	9	8	9	10	8	11	15	-	-	79	9.9

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New 8-way team captain Drew Starr joined Sean Sweeney, Jennifer and Matt Davidson in 4-way when Kurt Isenbarger retired, and they competed together at the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2018, then could not follow up with more bronze medals at the USPA Nationals.

Sean Sweeney left the 8-way team after the FAI World Meet 2018 in Australia and still came back for this year's indoor championship to defend the 3rd place successfully. He was not available for the Summer Classic last weekend, and Jesse Stahler took the open 4-way slot.

New 8-way team captain Drew Starr was available for a new NSL News Live Talk on Sunday morning when the weather situation caused a delay for the completion of the missing three rounds. He explained how this 4-way lineup came together for the meet in Raeford and how happy he and his Golden Knights team mates are for Matt Davidson and his next step with Arizona Airspeed.

Drew Starr has made a classical career with the Golden Knights and has earned four FAI 8-way gold medals at world championships so far. He started with filming the U.S. Army team in Menzelinsk 2010 where they won silver medals behind France. He was still on the Golden Knights 8-way camera for the gold medals in Dubai 2012.

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Paraclete XP Indoor 2019			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		O,4,B,10	17,6,15	19,9,7	L,K,G,18	21,J,12	M,E,P,D,22	3,1,H	Q,A,16,N	11,2,C	13,5,F	Total	Avg
1	Paraclete XP8	US	28	29	22	30	26	30	43	35	27	26	296	29.6
2	Qatar Falcons	QA	28	27	19	29	22	31	36	35	24	22	273	27.3
3	Veloce QRF 1	INT	23	23	18	24	20	22	32	31	21	19	233	23.3
4	Golden Knights	US	22	21	17	23	19	23	27	24	17	20	213	21.3
5	Veloce QRF 2	FR	18	18	13	19	13	15	23	23	15	16	173	17.3
6	LJ's Angels	US	17	15	14	20	15	18	22	19	13	17	170	17.0
7	Blocksmiths XP	US	17	15	13	19	13	15	21	19	9	14	155	15.5
8	Veloce QRF 3	FR	16	12	13	19	12	16	19	21	11	15	154	15.4
9	Spaceland Lite	US	16	14	11	17	14	15	20	19	11	12	149	14.9

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He was actually ready for a slot in front of the camera in 2013, which did not materialize after a call to duty in Afghanistan. So he won his third gold medal as the alternate for the 2014 lineup in Prostejov. Then it was his turn in front of the camera, and he won two gold medals in the active lineup in Chicago 2016 and Australia 2018.

The next step came for Drew Starr came when team captain Sean Sweeney stepped back after his own 4th gold medal in Australia last year. Drew Starr was assigned as the new team captain and is now in the middle of trying to get his new lineup ready for the showdown with Paraclete XP8 at the USPA Nationals.

Drew Starr can only continue his own streak of 8-way gold medals at world meets if the Golden Knights win the 8-way competition in September this year. Only Jennifer Davidson and David Flynn are back from the world champion lineup of 2018, and there is a lot of work to get done before the Golden Knights might be able to match the XP8 performance level.

The quality of the 8-way performance at the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship was already impressive, even though the Golden Knights ended up in 4th place only. Drew Starr has been focusing on outdoor training ever since and tries to apply the indoor team skills as much as possible, and as his previous team captain was successful with in 2016 and 2018. The Golden Knights have three months left until the USPA 8-way showdown in Raeford...