posted Feb 11th, 2021 - The recent change in the XPG4 lineup has brought back into 4-way action one of the original Ranch 2nd Generation (R2G) members, Brenn Richards, as the NSL News reported on January 27th.

The young U.S. shooting star team was an exciting and regular topic for the NSL News since the team was formed in 2015. The very promising team project came to an end when R2G began to cut the distance to the best teams in the United States, after breaking through the 20-average outdoor benchmark at the USPA Nationals 2019.

The R2G project was over, while the end of the team was only the beginning for the individual team members in the last lineup, who posted the 20.1 average at the USPA Nationals 2019. All active team members of the lineup that became known as the popular R2G (Brenn Richards, Michelle Karamon, Christopher Kuhlmann, Joey Marshall, with Kamuran "Sonic" Bayrasli on camera) have now advanced to the world's 4-way and 8-way top level.

The members of the last lineup in 2019 (Jeana Billings, Michelle Karamon, Christopher Kuhlmann, Joey Marshall) are now training and competing with the currently strongest U.S. 4-way and 8-way teams (Arizona Airspeed, Airspeed XP8), at least according to the latest outdoor scores at the NSL Cloud Mondial 2020.

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NSL Cloud Mondial 2020			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		11		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		22,21,M		5,C,J,H		7,3,6		10,E,9		18,L,B,F		D,20,15		17,P,A,1		8,Q,12		N,13,K,11		G,14,O,2		4,19,16		Total	Avg
1	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	21		40		25		26		34		22	-2	29		20		24		24		21		286	26.0
2	Arizona Airspeed	US	20	-1	36		23		23	-1	33		23		28	-1	21		24		23		19		273	24.8
3	SDC Rhythm XP	US	20	-1	36		21		24		31		21	-1	26		19		23		23		19		263	23.9
4	Qatar Tigers	QA	20		32	-2	18	-2	23		29	-1	20	-1	26		18		23		20		18		247	22.5
5	Paraclete XPG4	US	17		22	-2	17		17		20	-1	17		21		16		17		17		13		194	17.6
6	CTR Optimum	BR	17		21		17		17	-1	17	-2	15		16	-1	12	-1	14		14		13	-2	173	15.7
7	Ayro	BE	12	-1	16		12	-1	12	-1	16		12		17		11		14		10	-3	12		144	13.1
8	SDC RhEvolution XP	US	12	-1	14	-2	12		11		15	-1	12		11	-2	10	-1	13		9	-2	-		119	11.9
9	Airbus Illertissen	DE	13		16		11		10	-1	16		8	-1	13		7		12		7	-1	-		113	11.3
10	Out of the Blue	NL	15		22	-1	15		20		23		-		-		-		-		-		-		95	19.0

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R2G members with Arizona Airspeed and XPG4

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Jeana Billings and Michelle Karamon will also compete with Airspeed XP8 for the U.S. Formation Skydiving delegation at the next world championship, the FAI Tanay Mondial 2020, which is scheduled for August this year.

Original R2G members Brenn Richards, Christopher Kuhlmann and Joey Marshall still have to wait for the qualification to the next world meet, even though they are arguably in the strongest U.S. teams in 4-way Open (Arizona Airspeed) and 4-way Women (XPG4) at this point in time.

The situation is similar for Jeana Billings and Michelle Karamon, who are arguably in the strongest U.S. 4-way Women team, XPG4. They have to qualify first for the U.S. outdoor delegation, as Aviatrixx won the last USPA Nationals in 4-way Women.

However, Jeana Billings and Michelle Karamon are also in the Airspeed XP8 lineup, and they will travel to Russia this year if the world meet will be held as planned.

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USPA Nationals 2019			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		11		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		7,C,H,P		J,21,20		O,3,11		B,2,K,E		8,Q,10		15,D,F,12		N,L,M,14		6,1,9		A,18,13		G,4,5		17,16,22		Total	Avg
1	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	45	-1	24		27		37		21		25		34		25	-1	26	-1	25	-4	-		289	28.9
2	SDC Rhythm XP	US	41		22		21	-1	33		21		23		27		25		24		25		21	-1	262	26.2
3	Arizona Airspeed	US	40	-1	24		22	-2	32		19	-2	24		29		25		21	-2	26	-1	20	-2	262	26.2
4	Defiance	US	30	-1	21		15	-4	28		16		19		22	-3	21		18	-1	18	-1	-		208	20.8
5	Ranch 2nd Generation	US	26		19		19		24	-2	16	-1	17	-1	24		18	-1	19		19		-		201	20.1
6	Kinetix	AU	26		18		17		22		13	-1	17		18	-1	17		17		17		-		182	18.2
7	Lite XP	US	24	-1	17		17		22		15		17		20	-2	16	-1	14		17		-		179	17.9
8	No Name	US	22	-4	17		14		19	-2	12	-2	13		14	-3	15		14		16		-		156	15.6
9	Aviatrixx	US	21		14		13	-1	18	-1	12	-2	15		17	-1	14	-1	12		14		-		150	15.0
10	Perris Force	US	20		13	-1	14		18		11	-1	11		18	-1	13	-1	12		12	-1	-		142	14.2

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R2G's 20.1 average at the USPA Nationals 2019

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XPG4 already won the last indoor qualification at the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2020, and they will try to defend the title at the upcoming championship at Paraclete XP. This time, they will have original R2G member Brenn Richards in the lineup, who may win a ticket to the next indoor world meet shortly after her comeback.

It was apparently only a matter of time when Ranch 2nd Generation would have caught up with Arizona Airspeed and SDC Rhythm XP. Even if they had eventually become the strongest 4-way team in the United States with the 2016/2017 lineup R2G would not have covered all events as comprehensively as they do now.

The R2G team members now have their presence in the top spots of all three traditional Formation Skydiving competition events. Christopher Kuhlmann and Joey Marshall are aiming at the world's 4-way Open top spot with Arizona Airspeed in the coming years. Michelle Karamon and Brenn Richards train and compete together again in the strongest U.S. 4-way Women indoor team and will go after the outdoor title, as well, together with R2G 2019/2020 member Jeana Billings.

Last and not least, Jeana Billings and Michelle Karamon represent the former R2G team in the U.S. national 8-way lineup, as well. It seems like the R2G members of 2016/2017 and 2019/2020 will do a lot of traveling together to international FAI/ISC events in the near future – in the U.S. delegation but with different teams...