posted Dec 30th, 2009 - The NSL News story on 24 December 2009 mentioned USPA's 2009 Collegiate National Championships, which officially begun yesterday and take place at Skydive Spaceland, Texas, the host of the 2009 USPA National Skydiving Championships.

The 4-way competition has almost exactly the same start as at the USPA Nationals in October this year. Bad weather has kept the 14 teams on the ground so far. Five teams are registered for the Open Class competition and nine teams for the Advanced Class.

The 4-way dive pool of the USPA Collegiate National Championships is identical with the A Class of the international NSL Network and includes eight blocks and 16 random formations. The sequences consist of three or four formations, as well. There is no difference between Open and Advanced Class as of the dive pool.

The mentioned story covered the Georgia Tech team Trained Amateurs that competed at the November meet of the Georgia Skydiving League. The Trained Amateurs did not travel to Texas to compete at their national championship event. However, other team names of the field in Texas are well known in the 4-way community.

The top contender of the Open Class competition is the Virginia Tech team VTSD, winner of this year's AA/Intermediate Class at the USPA Nationals. The NSL News introduced the young team with stories on 12 October 2009, 14 October 2009 and 13 November 2009, including a live interview on the competition site.

VTSD may even improve the team's winning average of 13.1 this week since the A Class dive pool at the Collegiates is significantly easier compared to the AA Class dive pool at the USPA Nationals.

Other teams at the Collegiates are in the same situation and will probably enjoy the faster and easier sequences. Air Force Groove placed tied in 4th place with a 10.1 average at the USPA Nationals. Air Force Epic finished with an 8.3 average tied in 12th place in October. West Point Apocalypse placed right behind Epic with an 8.2 average and then posted an 18.8 average in the A Class competition at the SkyVenture New Hampshire indoor competition in November. Tom Falzone was player coach in the wind tunnel and filled the slot for Matthew Palange, who is now back in the lineup.

There is one more team registered for the Open Class, 6 Balls corner pocket. It looks like most of the teams that have already competed in the AA/Intermediate Class this year have signed up for the Open Class at the Collegiates, while the majority of the nine other Advanced Class teams have no competition experience so far, with a few exceptions.

West Point Vigilantes already competed at the same indoor competiton as Apocalypse and posted a 17.3 average after ten rounds. Vigilantes might be the top contender of the Advanced Class competition at the Collegiates.

The West Point Abroad lineup consists of tunnel experts, as well. Christina West, AJ Deluca, Jack Osborne and Mike White competed at the same wind tunnel competition at the beginning of December and posted a 13.6 average.

The first scores will hopefully be posted tomorrow, and the NSL News will follow up with more details.