posted May 31st, 2010 - The Mideast Skydiving League launched its 2010 season on the first multi-event weekend on May 22, together with teams from Italy, United Kingdom, Northern Plains and Carolina. Four teams competed at the new location of Start Skydiving in Middletown, and they were all in the competitive mix of that weekend's leaderboard.

Team Start competed in the AAA Class competition and had well know names in the lineup. John Hart and Niklas Hemlin used to compete with one of the best 4-way teams in the world, Team Fastrax.

John Hart and Niklas Hemlin attended their last meet with Fastrax at the USPA Nationals 2007. Thomas Hughes and Doug Park were in this lineup that placed 2nd behind Arizona Airspeed with a 24.4 average.

John Hart and Niklas Hemlin both continued with their skydiving businesses and helped skydivers in the MESL area to learn 4-way competition. They had John Hart's son John II and Thomas Margand in the Team Start lineup at the May meet. Dan Paganini was filming the team.

Team Start suffered several point deductions due to the camera angle, and the team was not able to continue after Round 2.

Tenacity is a team that coach Niklas Hemlin has been working with since it was formed at the beginning of the 2009 season. The Tenacity 2009 lineup (Tristan Donley, Arianna Williams, Joan Esson, Jane McGuire, Leah Summers - Tail) attended three MESL meets (8.0 - 7.3 - 6.8) and continued with plans for the 2010 season.

The team came back with almost exactly the same lineup (Arianna Williams - Point, Tristan Donley - Center Inside, Jane McGuiire - Center Outside, Joan Esson - Tail, with Beth Shell on camera) and had a very strong showing in the AA Class competition.

Joan Esson moved from the Point to the Tail slot, and the all-female lineup's 10.2 average after all six rounds was only two points behind the 10.5 average of the AA Class winner that weekend, Italy's team ASH-Fano. Tenacity was also one point behind NPSL team HTH after four rounds.

The 10.5 performance lifted the Tenacity average up onto the 2-digit level and made it a great start of the 2010 season. The video of Tenacity's Round 6 can be reviewed at the MESL Facebook pages.

Tenacity had direct competition on site with another AA Class team. ATM had John Hart as a player coach in the Center Inside slot. Hugh Herman (Center Outside), Tim Hovanec (Tail) and Ed Lightle (Point) completed the lineup.

ATM won Round 6 over Tenacity and had actually the highest AA Class score in this round, as the 12-pointer tied ASH-Fano's score. ATM collected even more points within working time but lost a few due to the video angle after the exit.

ATM could not keep up with Tenacity through the whole meet and obviously saved the best for the last round. The 7.0 average placed the MESL team right in the middle of the AA Class leaderboard.

The Mideast Skydiving League also had a new Rookie Class lineup at the May meet. Necessary Equipment is another all-female lineup and consists of Amy Fillion (Tail), Rebekah Leftwhich (Point), Kim Mills (Center Outside) and Tina Richerds (Center Inside). MESL Director Mike Ashley was filming the new team.

Tina Richerds had already attended a few meets in the Rookie Class competition of the MESL 2009 season. Now she came back with the Necessary Equipment and finished with a 4.3 average at the first meet of the 2010 season.

The MESL Rookie Class team finished tied in 5th place of 14 teams in the Rookie Class competition on May 22.