posted Feb 22nd, 2006 - The NSL News has already covered the performance of the three top teams in the Open/AAA Class at the SSL Valentine's Meet 2006, and an interview with Team Fastrax after the competition can still be viewed on NSL-TV. The NSL News continues the meet coverage with information of the other teams that competed in Eloy last weekend.

The A Class was represented by one team. Evas Revenge has taken the lead in the national A Class Rankings of the National Skydiving League after the first event of the 2006 season. Obviously, it was the very first and only competition so far, and it was only one team that signed up for the A Class in Eloy, however, Evas Revenge is still the first leader of the 2006 leaderboard in the A Class.

This competition class was very popular last year, especially in the Midwest Skydiving League. In fact, five of the top ten teams of last year's final A Class Rankings competed in the Midwest Skydiving League. Skydive Chicago's Furies and Chicago Sirens, both all-female teams, competed hard all season long for the prime spot in this class.

Considering the popular A Class competition in this region, it might not be a coincidence that all members of Evas Revenge call an MWSL skydiving center their home. Susan Crowe (Outside Center), Neill Gresham (Inside Center), Steve Lefkowitz (Point) and Janette Lefkowitz (Tail) all jump mainly at Chicagoland Skydiving Center.

Steve Lefkowitz explained to the NSL News that the team members in Eloy were all from different MWSL teams: "Our team was a pickup team. We are all from different teams and jump mainly at Chicagoland Skydiving Center. This was the first trip for all of us to Eloy, and we had a great time participating in the meet, as well as spending some hours in the tunnel."

The 2006 season will be Steve Lefkowitz' first year on a team. His team mates in Evas Revenge have already been on other teams before. Neill Gresham competed with team 4-Play throughout the MWSL 2005 season. This year will also be the third season for Susan Crowe and the fourth year for Janette Lefkowitz on a 4-way team.

The 7.2 meet average in Eloy would have placed Evas Revenge already within the top ten of last year's A Class Rankings. Steve Lefkowitz was pleased with the performance of the MWSL pickup team: "We were very happy with how we did considering only doing seven jumps together before the meet, and for all of us it was the first time doing many of the points in these positions."

He had more good things to say about the meet day in Eloy: "We also really appreciated getting tips from members of more experienced teams like Airspeed, Fastrax, and Divewerkz. Everyone is so approachable. Even during the meet they were eager to take the time to give us quick tips on how to build points or design exits. The energy, intensity, and comraderie of the meet made it a great atmosphere for competition."

The NSL News experienced the same atmosphere at the SSL Valentine's Meet 2006. One of the NSL purposes is to spread the knowledge and excitement of 4-way competition from top to bottom. The regular regional meets, where teams, competitors, coaches and judges of all competition classes work together for a weekend, are supposed to offer this opportunity. It is good to hear once in a while that it works that way.