posted Jul 23rd, 2006 - The scores of the Northwest Skydiving League's first meet of the 2006 season have now been added to last weekend's leaderboard and have changed the picture of the AA/Intermediate Class competition. The top position of the AA Class Rankings has finally changed, Elsinore Vengeance had a powerful comeback on July 15.

The NWSL team with Lisa Albrecht (Point), Deb Correia (Inside Center), Dave Correia (Tail), Jeff Smith (Outside Center) and Luke Nevin (Camera) competed in the same competition class last year (9.3 - 10.3 - 10.3 - 10.3) and finished in 7th position in the NSL AA Class Rankings and in 10th position at the USPA Nationals 2005.

Last year's medal winning average in the AA/Intermediate Class was between 12.6 (Arizona Divewerkz in 3rd place) and 13.0 (Elsinore Equinox in 1st place), and Elsinore Vengeance was not close enough in 2006. The NWSL team begins its 2006 competition season on a significantly higher level, as last weekend's 11.3 average after six rounds clearly shows.

This result puts Elsinore Vengeance in the position of a top contender for AA/Intermediate Class medals this year, and Vengeance now holds the top spot of the AA Class Rankings. However, the 11.3 average is not the best meet average of the 2006 season any longer. Things have already changed, only one week later.

The scores of Saturday's Southwest Skydiving League competition in Elsinore have also been added to this weekend's leaderboard, and Para Gone finished the meet with an 11.4 average after five rounds. The SSL team with Andrea Curthoys, Erin Murphy, Katie Pelland and Mahindra Raj came from an 8.0 average at the SSL May meet, which lowers the season average to 9.7 and keeps the SSL team currently only in 7th position of the AA Class Rankings.

Elsinore Vengeance's 11.3 average did not come easy, as NWSL Director Harry Waller explained: "The first Northwest Skydiving League Meet of the season had a slow start. The initial weather report was for clear skies all weekend. Then it changed to cloudy until 11:00 am, and then again to cloudy until 2:00 pm. The three teams made the first attempt around 11:00 am but ended up riding the plane down because of the solid layer of clouds over the drop zone."

The teams finally got in the air around 2:00 pm, and it became a beautiful and very long day from there. Two teams competed in the AA Class, Elsinore Vengeance and Cheaters and Beaters. Elsinore Vengeance returned with the same line-up as last year. Cheaters and Beaters consists of two former members of the Tye Breakers, the team that won silver medals at the USPA Nationals 2004 in the AA/Intermediate Class: Tye Graven and Kimmy Kaplan. Sharon and Bob Glaeser and Lee Roehrdanz complete the line-up. All five were members of last year's 8-way team Northwest Express.

NWSL Director Harry Waller reported a good competition between the two teams until round four, when both teams were still tied with a total of 38 points: "Vengeance's biggest strength has been the random work, and that showed in round six where they scored an 18-pointer."

The tied scores after round four were already broken in round five (12 - 7), and Elsinore Vengeance ended up nine points ahead of the NWSL rival. Four points separated Vengeance from Skydive Chicago's Furies in second place on the July 15 leaderboard.

Harry Waller said that the last jump of the NWSL day was a sunset jump at 9:00 pm. He added that the first competition for the new A Class team "In Theory" went very well: "Considering the team could have been renamed In-Complete, In-Jured or In-Stead, it was a good start."

Harry Waller had to step in at the last moment to fill the team's Center Outside slot: "Corey Parker was the team's Center Inside, Gene Delay the Tail, Randy the Point, and Rocky and JJ Johnson filmed us. We In-Terred the A Class competition and jumped In-Between the clouds, which threatened to delay the meet In-Definitely..."

The NWSL Director provided his experiences for the A Class team and explained in a funny way how his A Class team made it through the meet honoring the team name: "We had to wait for the next In-stallment of tandems to load the plane. As the day progressed, the competition became In-tense. In-dividual performances by each team member In-pressed" the howling crowds. Everyone could feel the excitement rising with each jump as we battled against ourselves. By the last jump, it was In-conceivable that anything but an In-verted exit would hold us back. The exit was executed as In-tended and points were scored. In-the End, the clear winner of the A Class was us, In Theory..."