posted Feb 25th, 2010 - The Valentine's Meet 2010 was not only an Airspeed affair. It surely was a small meet, as indeed the lowest number of teams ever in the history of the event attended this year's competition. However, there were also three other teams at Skydive Arizona on the Valentine's weekend.

The NSL News had already introduced the Dutch/Belgian 4XTT combination with earlier stories. The other two teams appeared on the NSL leaderboard for the first time. There were still familiar names in those lineups.

Arizona Frenzy, the third team in the AAA Class competition, consisted of Jocelyn Bernatchez, Ian Mackenzie, Annie Peterson and Shannon Pilcher. Mark Kirkby is actually the player coach for Frenzy. Obviously, he could not be on both teams at the same time, and Shannon Pilcher took his slot.

The current 4-way world record holder with Spaceland Force XP happened to be in the area for a canopy piloting project near Tucson and could help out. He joined forces with another Frenzy player coach, Annaliese Peterson.

She is a member of the current US national 4-way team in the female 4-way category, Spaceland Blue. Shannon Pilcher and Annie Peterson both train with their teams at Spaceland. Force member Thomas Hughes is Blue's coach.

Annie Petterson is actually home in Arizana. She began her 4-way competition career with Arizona Divewerkz and won the USPA gold medals in the AAA/Advanced Class in 2006 with a 14.6 average. She continued with AZDW in the AAA/Open Class and posted a 15.8 average at the USPA Nationals 2007, then an impressive 19.0 average in 2008.

She left Arizona Divewerkz when Fastrax Blue of 2008, silver medalist at the World Meet 2008 in France, asked her to fill the open Point slot. Christy Frikken went back to her Perris Fury job after competing for Blue at the world meet, and Annie Peterson accepted the Blue invitation.

Fastrax Blue turned into Spaceland Blue in 2010 and was once again aiming at the US slot as the national team in the female category for the World Championship of Formation Skydiving 2010 in Russia. Sally Hathaway had to step in for the injured Becky Brocato at the USPA Nationals 2009, and Blue finished in 9th place with a 16.6 average.

Spaceland Blue is now training with the complete lineup, including Annie Peterson in the Point slot, and the US team is trying to catch up with the French national team that has been together for a much longer time. Spaceland Blue and Deep Blue will compete directly with each other for the first time this year at the FSL Shamrock Showdown 2010.

Arizona Frenzy will continue with the player coach project, and Mark Kirkby will be back with the team when the training resumes. Frenzy posted a 13.8 average at the team's first competition this year.