posted Jul 25th, 2005 - The Midwest Skydiving League kept its streak of four seasons without having a meet washed out alive Saturday by scheduling the right host DZ. While Skydive Chicago and Chicagoland Skydiving were grounded most of the day by bad weather, fortunately for the ten teams and meet coach, Airspeed's Eliana Rodriguez, the weather at Sky Knights SPC in southeast Wisconsin held up until a dangerous front finally pushed through in mid-afternoon, ending our meet but not before five rounds had been completed.

As was the case at our first two meets, the heaviest competition was in the A Class, where our top teams also dominate the NSL standings. Five of meet three's ten teams were in this class, with Always Broke, a 2004 MWSL regular from the East Troy DZ, joining four 2005 MWSL regulars.

The Sirens, Nite Hooker and the Pimps and One Fifty One (also from East Troy) have been locked in very tight competition since the beginning of the season, and Saturday was no exception. The A Class draw was fast, and all teams posted season high averages. Even after four rounds, only one point separated the three teams.

Although none knew it at the time, round five would be the final and deciding round. Both One Fifty One and the Pimps posted strong 9's to finish in a tie at a total of 40 points. However, the Sirens put together a very smooth score of 11 points and won the meet with a total of 43 points and an 8.6 meet average. 4-Play, who continued to impress with a solid 28-point performance, came in fourth. The "alumni" from Always Broke had to settle for fifth.

In the AA Class, Bill Rehm brought his Northern Plains Skydiving League leader, Fast Forward, all the way across Wisconsin to compete for the team's second consecutive NSL meet weekend. MWSL team Just4Fun was coming off its best meet ever and had "home field" advantage. However, like their two fellow Sky Knights teams, Just4Fun had to settle for runner up status this time. The NPSL team's training showed with five solid rounds, and Fast Forward took this class by a final score of 51 to 33 total points.

In the AAA Class, the Has-Beens returned for their second meet and put together a 9.5 average to beat CSC Steel Breeze, whose scoring was held back by a few costly miscues.

Finally, in the Rookie Class, the MWSL's most popular team in 2004, Chasing Amy was once again dependent upon teams competing in the other NSL meets across the country to provide competition. However, insofar as Amy was competing with the team's own scores of the last meet, they came away as winners, as Amy doubled the team's average from last month's meet!

As mentioned above, a dangerous "bow echo" storm hit southeast Wisconsin in mid-afternoon and ended the meet prematurely, but not before most teams had completed five rounds. The 2005 season continues to be a banner year for the MWSL, with an average of over nine teams per meet thus far, an astounding figure for a northern league and a testament to the popularity of competitive 4-way here in the upper Midwest.

At this meet, we all benefited from the presence of Eliana Rodriguez, one of the friendliest and surely the most effervescent of the world class 4-way coaches. Eliana was very impressed with the level of interest in 4-way in our region. Our meet was the first opportunity for most of our competitors to experience coaching from a world champion, and accordingly Eliana was kept very busy sharing her insights with the 40+ competitors.

DZ Sky Knights SPC continued to do their usual superb job as a meet host. In addition to the aforementioned co-sponsorship of Eliana, the Sky Knights did a fabulous job of manifesting a 10-team meet, provided great facilities and offered a barbeque lunch free of charge that hit the spot with the many hungry competitors to boot. A sincere and well-earned thanks for a job well done by Joey Cook, Lisa Schieffer, Suzy Strel and everyone else at SK. Also, thanks to Rook Nelson for providing a Twinotter from Skydive Chicago Otter for the meet, as well as flying all those loads. In fact, Rook and Melissa will be hosting our next meet on August 20-21 at Skydive Chicago, which will be part of the NSL Playoffs 2005, as well as MWSL Meet 4. It should be another great meet.

Meet report provided by MWSL Director Alan Butt