posted Jul 17th, 2006 - The 2005 season of the Midwest Skydiving League already had the exciting competition between Chicagoland Skydiving Center's team Sirens and Skydive Chicago's Furies in the headlines quite a few times. Both teams competed in the A Class by then. The race has continued in the AA Class this year, has become even closer and had a new peak last weekend.

The Furies were the dominating A Class team last year, and the Sirens tried to keep in striking distance. However, the competition between the two all-female teams was already much tighter when Furies and Sirens both attended the MWSL 2006 season opener on June 3 (57 - 55).

The Furies still managed to win the June meet by two points, while the Sirens were still pursuing the goal of breaking through the 10.0 average for the first time. The Sirens continued with the scoring progression in 2006 (7.6 - 9.2 - 9.7 - 10.5) and left the 10.0 behind last weekend's. At the same time, it turned out to become the toughest challenge for the Furies in the history of this race. MWSL Director Alan Butt provided the meet story:

"The Midwest Skydiving League held its third meet in six weeks this past Saturday at Skydive Chicago in Ottawa, IL. Nine teams competed under sunny, but very hot conditions. However, there would be prove for some very strong performances and great competition by the time the 45 skydivers were finished after six rounds.

As expected, the biggest turnout was in our AA Class; it would also provide the most excitement. Four teams: SDC Furies, SDC Cohesion, CSC Sirens and Just 4Fun (from East Troy) competed in this class. After three rounds, only five points separated the four teams.

Just4Fun wound up with 48 total points (8.0 average), the team's best score ever. This was an improvement of 13 points over their last meet and put them as second runner-up in the PD Challenge for the team with the most improved scores. The team that claimed that award was SDC Cohesion who scored a total of 57 points (9.5 average), stunning 22 points higher than their 35 points at the first meet. The improvement due to the recent team training was very evident.

But, as at the MWSL season opener this year, the AA Class race came down to the CSC Sirens and the SDC Furies. The Sirens had a slight edge in block work, while the Furies' random work continued to shine. The Sirens were leading 48-46 after the relatively blocky-heavy five rounds. However, round six was an all random dive for all classes, which meant it was still anyone's race to win.

In an exciting finish, fitting to the level of competition between these two teams, the Furies (Sarah Lawrence, Gosia Cienkocz, Lisa DeSimone, Shannon Sweet, Charles Lane on camera) pulled out a 1-point victory by scoring an 18-pointer for F-Q-O-D. The 18 apparently matches the highest score ever in a round at an MWSL meet. This AA Class performance was probably the best mix of skilled skydiving and competition yet seen at any MWSL meet.

The A Class also saw some very good skydiving and close competition. Chasing Amy was ahead of High Maintenance after three rounds by a single point. But then Maintenance (Sara Spitler, Valerie Long, Dina Kafenshtok, Brian Jarmy, Brad Vancina on video) put together three strong rounds and finished with a 36 - 31 victory. That also earned the team the runner-up status for the PD Challenge, with a 50% improvement over the team average at the second MWSL meet this year (24 points total).

The Rookie Class featured two closely matched teams. Skydive Chicago's Fireflies (Tory Davidson-Bell, Lisa Kinser, Dana Kurtz, Betsy Heering-Smith, Harry Higbie on camera) made their MWSL debut and defeated the Dropouts from the Chicagoland Skydiving Center, which included several members of last meet's team Nothing Stuck.

CSC Rubicon still remains the MWSL's sole representative for the 2006 season in the AAA/Open Class. Rubicon (Brian Darnell, Rich Madsen, Laurent Beaudouin, Steve Lefkowitz, Shea Meyer on camera) had a strong meet, dealing especially well with the very block-heavy opening four rounds. Rubicon finished with a 9.5 average.

Meet 3 generated a great deal of excitement and enthusiasm, despite the very hot weather that challenged even the best conditioned skydivers. Thanks to all the competitors for putting on a great show. Special thanks to Andy and Brad for covering two teams each.

Drew Hickok also did a great job by judging 54 jumps during the meet. And thank you to Skydive Chicago for hosting the largest turnout so far this season. Congratulations to Melissa and Rook for being named the host for the USPA Nationals 2007. This is a great reward for a DZ which has taken great strides supporting skydiving's most popular competitive sport.

Our next meet is scheduled for August 19 at Chicagoland Skydiving. I am looking forward to the next chapter in our very exciting 2006 season.

Alan Butt, MWSL Director