posted Nov 4th, 2025 - Six rounds of 16-way and 10-way Speed follow the 4-way and 8-way events at USPA Nationals. The lineups are usually recruited during the first formation skydiving events, and the time after the completion of 4-way and 8-way until Round 1 of 16-way is the time that teams may have for a few training jumps.

The Golden Knights had clearly taken the U.S. top spot in 4-way. Plans to join forces with Arizona Airspeed were actually made earlier this year, even though a few training jumps could only be completed after the conclusion of the 4-way competition on Monday. The GKAZ8 lineup was not a joint venture of both complete lineups though, as Chris Kuhlmann continued with Mandatory Fun! who he competed with at the FAI Outdoor World Cup 2025. Michelle Karamon took his 8-way slot with GKAZ8. The NSL News mentioned in the 8-way preview on October 17th that the 8-way competition could offer as much excitement as the situation in 4-way was. It was a very strong GKAX8 lineup who were ready to challenge the five new Paraclete XP8 competitors.

Chris Kuhlmann was back in the Airspeed/Golden Knights combination in 16-way and in 10-way Speed, and the GKAZ lineups in these events turned out to be a dominating force in both events. No other 16-way or 10-way Speed lineup came anywhere close to the scoring level of the previous 4-way opponents.

USPA Nationals 2025		1	2	3	4	5	6	Total	Avg
Rank	16-way Open	10,H	B,9	2,4	G,A,5	F,11	6,C	Total	Avg
1	GKAZ 16	8	8	6	7	8	9	46	7.7
2	More Than Adequate	6	7	4	5	5	9	36	6.0
3	Before The Day Before	5	5	4	1	4	7	26	4.3
4	Tangled Roots	2	2	0	1	1	0	6	1.0
Rank	10-way Speed	1	2	3	4	5	6	Total	Avg
1	GKAZ 10	12.54	12.01	12.07	12.35	12.86	23.00	84.83	14.14
2	Krill Or Be Krilled	24.82	20.52	15.38	17.95	16.11	25.89	120.67	20.11
3	Neurotic 10dencies	35.00	35.00	35.00	35.00	35.00	34.51	209.51	34.9

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GKAZ 16 - GKAZ 10 at the USPA Nationals 2025

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GKAZ8 eventually won two 8-way rounds and tied another one, which was far from enough to threaten the new XP8 lineup seriously, who Kirk Verner and Jeana Billings had recruited after the FAI Outdoor World Championship 2024. Paraclete XP8 picked up the pace with growing confidence round by round, and the 2-point difference after Round 3 turned into 25 points after Round 10.

The convincing XP8 performance avoided a Golden Knights/Arizona Airspeed formation skydiving competition sweep right at the second event. The best U.S. 4-way and 8-way teams have joined forces in many different ways in the past, and the Golden Knights/Airspeed combination was obviously a very strong one this year. They won three of the four formation skydiving events, and only XP8 interfered with the complete sweep.

XP8 members Jeana Billings, Jennifer Davidson and Kirk Verner were familiar with the colorful variations in the past. and they knew that the 8-way competition was their strongest option to stop the formation skydiving sweep by Golden Knights and Arizona Airspeed. They did not even participate in the other two later formation skydiving events. Jeana Billings and Kirk Verner only joined the Airspeed reunion in 4-way with the OGs, and the other new XP8 members were focused exclusively on the 8-way competition.

USPA Nationals 2025		1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open	Q,H,9,7		B,20,E,14		C,8,21		17,10,2		18,O,A,19		6,15,K		F,D,22,M		13,4,16		12,L,G,J		P,1,5		Total	Avg
1	XP8	17		14	-2	14	-1	15		14	-2	21	-1	20		20		20		18	-2	173	17.3
2	GKAZ8	14	-1	16	-1	12	-2	10	-2	15		16	-2	14	-3	20		16	-3	15	-2	148	14.8
3	Prison 9	11	-1	13		9	-3	11	-1	10		15		13	-1	15		12	-2	15		124	12.4
4	Mandatory Fun!	11		11		9	-1	9		9	-1	12	-1	13	-1	13		13		12		112	11.2
5	No Guts No Gloryhole	9	-2	8	-2	9		8		9		12		12		14		11		13		105	10.5
6	Perris Byte	7		7		4		6		6	-1	9		0		10		8		9	-1	66	6.6
7	Papa D's G8ngsteRhs	7	-2	5	-3	6		5		5		6	-1	8		5	-2	6	-2	9		62	6.2

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Paraclete XP8 at the USPA Nationals 2025

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The 8-way competition may have worked even better than expected for the new XP8 lineup. Avoiding the Golden Knights/Airspeed formation skydiving sweep was surely not a part of the XP8 planning. The only goal was winning the 8-way competition and the qualification for the next outdoor world championship in Eloy 2026.

This mission was accomplished in an impressive way by the only two returning team members, Jeana Billings and Kirk Verner. Even 8-way and 4-way Women world champion Jennifer Davidson was not in the active GKXP8 lineup of 2023 and 2024. She won her 8-way gold medal with the Golden Knights in Australia 2018.

Jill Stephenson, James Hall, Carl Kallgren, Brandon Kashani, Ian Pedowitz and Kevin Penn on camera deserve the credit for the amazing efforts that they invested into the new U.S. 8-way champion team. Just as the two new Arizona Airspeed members they had one year to get ready for the challenging goal and win the U.S. qualification. Now there is the next step ahead. Jeana Billings and Kirk Verner would like to defend their 8-way world championship title successfully in Eloy 2026. Kirk Verner would win his 6th world championship title in 8-way and tie Craig Girard on the top of the list of the most successful formation skydiving competitors in history with a total of eight FAI gold medals. Jeana Billings and Kirk Verner together are both aiming at their 4th consecutive 8-way world championship title.

4-way and 8-way gold medalists at FAI World Championships of Formation Skydiving since 1985

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