posted Jun 9th, 2010 - The scores from Virginia (West Point) and MidAtlantic (Cross Keys) have completed last weekend's leaderboard. Teams from Europe dominated the AAA Class rankings, while the US teams competed mostly in the AA Class.

A few videos from the season opener of the Mideast Skydiving League in May now completes the coverage of this event. The NSL News story on 31 May 2010 had provided the meet story and more details.

One US team squeezed its team name into the middle of the AAA Class leaderboard last weekend, Cross Keys NRG from the MidAtlantic Skydiving League. New MASL Director Dennis Miller provided some insights of the team.

Mideast Skydiving League - May Meet

Bob Barnes, Scott Macario, Martin Schneider and Sue Sweetman, with Larry Thomas on camera, competed for Cross Keys NRG in the MidAtlantic Skydiving League last year. Then they attended the USPA Nationals 2009 and won the bronze medals in the AA/Intermediate Class with exactly the same 10.2 average that they had posted earlier in a 6-round MASL meet.

Bob Barnes and Scott Macario decided this year to move on and up into the AAA Class competition. They found Karl Schuch and Kristof Szilard who were both familiar with the AAA Class dive pool.

Karl Schuch has been training and competing with several different MASL lineups in the past years. He and his wife Cherie eventually won USPA Intermediate Class gold medals for Air Pollution in 2007.

Karl Schuch also competed for AAA Class team Cross Keys Blue last year and joined a Teiwaz lineup at the April meet of the Florida Skydiving League. He and Kristof Szilard knew each other from last year's meets with Cross Keys Blue.

It was the first competition for Bob Barnes and Scott Macario in the AAA Class, and the 9.2 average is only one point average behind last year's highest NRG average of 10.2 in the AA Class. The six rounds included several sequences with slot switchers and memory.

Dennis Miller, who attended last weekend's MASL meet with AA Class team Extra Altitude, reported that the MASL also had new Rookie Class team at this year's season opener. The Condor lineup included 4-way beginners like Jim Walker with 70 jumps and Marie Rodriguez with only 31 jumps total.

He also pointed out that Ashley Fischer moved up into the AA Class competition this year with just over 200 jumps. He said that the more experienced MASL competitors like what they are seeing from the new participants, and they hope to see them continue this year.

He added that videographers Joe Vance, Barry Bichler and Linc Harris all did a great job capturing the meet videos.

Only Cross Keys NRG was able to complete all six rounds. Dennis Miller said that high winds in the afternoon prevented the other teams from completing all six rounds that were actually planned. The next MASL meet is scheduled for July 3rd and is the annual Karp Cup.