posted Jun 27th, 2010 - It was déjà vu time at Skydive Chicago as some of the stormiest weather of the year hit Northern Illinois the night before our MWSL meet. But the weather settled down enough to get most of the season opener in before the wind caused some teams to have to end their meet early.

Eight teams, conveniently enough two in each NSL competition class, were on hand for the meet. The field included nationally ranked SDC Rhythm XP, MWSL veterans SDC Furies and Just4Fun as well as some teams competing for the first time.

In the AAA Class, we had two teams competing for their second consecutive weekend at SDC, both with different rosters compared to last season. As noted earlier in the NSL News, both Rhythm and the Furies competed at the Midway Battle on the June 12 weekend.

Jun19th, 2010		Round1	Round2	Round3	Round4	Round5	Round6	Round7	Round8	Round9	Round10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAAClass	N,4,H,O	21,13,9	15,19,P	6,D,B,16	L,5,10	1,20,7	K,J,12,G	A,Q,C,11	F,E,2,M	14,18,17	Total	Avg
1	SDC Rhythm XP	21	18	17	19	18	18	18	24	28	15	196	19.6
2	SDC Furies XP	14	10	9	13	10	10	10	11	-	-	87	10.9

In addition to the "planned" roster changes from 2009, the Furies had former Rhythm member Laurent Beaudouin fly the Center Outside slot in place of the injured Gosia Cienkocz. This meets marked the Furies' 8th season of competiton, with Sarah Lawrence and Gosia Cienkocz actually being original roster members.

Both Rhythm and the Furies had solid meets with 18.5 and 11.0 averages through six rounds, respectively. Rhythm's score put them in second place of the overall NSL AAA Class leaderboard behind the Dutch team Dynamic Fource.

Rhythm continued into the day with rounds 7-10 and scored a scorching 28-pointer in Round 9. The Furies also served as meet coaches for the day. Rhythm's JaNette Lefkowitz will be coach at our next meet.

AA Class Competition

The AA Class competition had one veteran team and one team making its debut.

Wisconsin's Just4Fun, like the Furies, is also now in its eighth consecutive season in the MWSL. Three members, John Lindstrom, Chris Whittet and Brian Ladow are all from the original 2003 team.

Their competition Saturday was Pieces of 8, as the name implies half of an 8-way team which is training for the USPA Nationals 2010. Neither team wound up competing the full six rounds due to the winds that picked up in the afternoon.

Jun19th, 2010		Round1	Round2	Round3	Round4	Round5	Round6	Round7	Round8	Round9	Round10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAClass	N,4,H	21,13	15,19	6,D,B	L,O,9	1,20	K,J,G,7	A,Q,C,11	F,E,2	14,18	Total	Avg
1	Just 4 Fun	6	5	2	3	3	-	-	-	-	-	19	3.8
2	Pieces of 8	3	3	2	3	-	-	-	-	-	-	11	2.8

A Class Competition

The A Class had two teams that were making the move from competing in the Rookie Class last year: SDC Flying Fish and JetStream Tango.

Both teams handled the transition well. The Fish scored a 4.7 average, just slightly below the team's score at the last Rookie Class competition.

Tango scored a 5.3 average through three rounds before the wind ended their day.

This result was actually higher than the team's most recent Rookie Class average.

Jun19th, 2010		Round1	Round2	Round3	Round4	Round5	Round6	Round7	Round8	Round9	Round10	Total	Avg
Rank	AClass	N,4	21,H	19,B	6,D	L,O,9	7,M	K,J,G	A,Q,C	F,E,2	8,P	Total	Avg
1	SDC Flying Fish	3	5	5	3	6	6	-	-	-	-	28	4.7
2	Jetstream Tango	5	6	5	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	16	5.3

Rookie Class Competition

Both teams in the Rookie Class were making their competitive debut. The Archway Archrivals represented the first St. Louis area team competing in the Midwest Skydiving League since the Archway Hooligans in 2002.

The Archrivals didn't seem to suffer from any competitive anxiety, put up a strong and consistent performance finishing with a 4.0 average. The second place went the local team 4seTs whose roster includes one member with only 70 jumps. The 4seTs had a 2.5 average after their six first competition rounds.

For the first time ever, the MWSL featured a professional scoring system rather than the old reliable stopwatch. SDC generously volunteered the use of its Camscore system, and the teams were scored by local judge Allen Heitz.

Jun19th, 2010		Round1	Round2	Round3	Round4	Round5	Round6	Round7	Round8	Round9	Round10	Total	Avg
Rank	Rookie	N,K,F	H,J,E	B,G,P	D,A,N	L,O,Q	M,C,H	K,J,G	A,Q,C	F,E,B	P,D,L	Total	Avg
1	Arch Rivals	4	5	3	5	4	3	-	-	-	-	24	4.0
2	4 Sets	3	3	0	4	3	2	-	-	-	-	15	2.5

A nice feature of the Camscore system was the opportunity to display videos of the teams jumps, as well as current scores all day long in the auditorium and on a big-screen TV in the main hangar. It was clearly the most hi-tech day in MWSL history!

Despite some wind shortened performances, it was a great kickoff to the 2010 season. The MWSL season opener featured a great turnout of eight teams, smooth manifesting and an abundance of enthusiasm.

Thanks to everyone involved for making it possible. Meet 2 is only a few weeks away, July 10th at Chicagoland Skydiving.

Written by MWSL Director Alan Butt