posted Aug 15th, 2020 - After some delays and cancellations of previous 2020 meets the MWSL held the first meet of the 2020 season at Skydive Midwest last weekend with much excitement. Many MWSL teams have been navigating the challenges of travelling and training safely during the pandemic, which unfortunately meant for some of the more experienced Midwest teams that they were unable to make the trip to Wisconsin for the meet.

However, MWSL organizer and event coach JaNette Lefkowitz said that it was exciting to see young talent combine with some MWSL regulars who did show up for the meet forming two teams for the event. JaNette Lefkowitz introduced the teams for the NSL News:

"Team Rock It! was a pickup team of three experienced competitors and one newcomer coordinated by members of SDMW NEXT. Inside center Ray Medley has been a regular at MWSL meets for a few years now. Dave Langhoff on tail has competed with a number of teams at MWSL meets over the years as well as trained and competed with SDMW Salty Margar8's who earned a silver medal in the 8-way Intermediate Class competition of the USPA Nationals 2017.

"Stanley Bukala, of 2018 2nd place 4-way Intermediate Class team SDMW X, flew outside center. Joe Werner made his MWSL meet debut on point with Rock It. After getting his license in the sprint of 2019 Joe has been working with the members of SDMW NEXT and making impressive progress. Chris Bove, a Skydive Midwest local, keen to improve his 4-way FS video skills, jumped in to film Rock It!

---

Midwest Skydiving League August 2020		1	2	3	4	5	6	Total	Avg
Rank	A Class	B,F,21	7,N	E,H,4	C,G,6	L,O,M	8,Q	Total	Avg
1	Quattro Ronas	4	4	4	3	4	4	23	3.8
2	Rock It!	5	1	3	3	6	2	20	3.3

---

JaNette Lefowitz said that Quattro Ronas, a new team that just formed in the last few months, also made their competition debut. Tom Holan in the tail slot has competed in MWSL meets off and on through the years and was excited to share 4-way with a young team.

This was also the first MWSL meet for outside center Elijah Romer. JaNette Lafkowitz said that he perhaps got the competition bug after finishing in 2nd place at SDC's Rookiefest competition last fall. About his motivation this year Elijah said that he wanted to form a team this year to help build his skills and also to prove that it is still possible to do that in the face of everything going on in 2020: "There is definitely intentional irony in the name of our team Quattro Ronas..."

The MWSL August meet was the second MWSL event for inside enter Tom Barr. He called the experience "nothing short of amazing". He continued: "We all want to get a lot better and possibly compete at nationals next year." JaNette Lefkowitz said that the team was short one member: "Fortunately Brad Wallace's team, veteran MWSL team MWFF Mad Props, was unable to make the meet, so Brad was happy to fill in on point for the Quattro Ronas. Brad also brought his experience on a few Rhythm project teams, including SDC Rhevolution, to Quattro Ronas."

JaNette Lefkowitz said that rounding out the team was Tracey Holman on video, who just recently moved to the Midwest as Skydive Chicago's event manager: "Tracey is not new to competition, having competed in both 4-way and VFS as a performer. Now with Quattro Ronas she's trying her skills on camera. Quattro Ronas showed up expecting to compete in the Rookie Class, but bravely agreed to take on the challenge of the A Class so that they could compete with team Rock It!"

---

---

MWSL teams Rock It! and Quattro Ronas at the August meet

---

With both teams competing in the A Class, a beautiful day of weather ahead, and a supportive dropzone, the meet started. JaNette Lefkowitz was the meet director, meet coach and judge helping the teams through each round. Round 1 set the stage for what would be an exciting race.

Team Rock It! scored their 5th point just in time while the Quattro Ronas had a 4, with the 5th point just out of time. Bad luck struck team Rock It! in Round 2 in the form of a funneled exit. They were able to get together and had a good skydive afterwards, however, most of it wasn't in time. Quattro Ronas returned a consistent 4-pointer for Round 2.

Fortunately Rock It! was able to use some pointers on their exit and stuck every exit after that, fighting hard to take back points from the Quattro Ronas, even posting the meet's highscore of 6 points in Round 5. However, Quattro Ronas continued with a consistent performance and after 6 rounds finished ahead of Rock It. For their meet prize, Quattro Ronas chose two sets of Rhythm flash cards, no doubt to help them study for their upcoming training plans.

There are still two meets left for the 2020 MWSL meet season. Meet # 2 is on August 29th at Chicagoland Skydiving Center and Meet # 3 on September 12th at Skydive Chicago. Interested teams and competitors should reach out to Steve or JaNette Lefkowitz. Pickup teams and fill-ins are available at all levels.