posted Aug 15th, 2007 - The third MWSL meet of the 2007 season took place last weekend at Skydive Chicago. Weather has been an issue for all the MWSL teams this entire season, but the weekend was very accommodating to jumping, if a bit warm. The trend of fewer teams but higher scores than in recent years continued at the meet with five teams posting what were probably the highest overall scores in the history of the Midwest Skydiving League.

A special aspect of this meet was the option to do ten jumps over two days at the host DZ for next month's USPA Nationals. As an added assist to the preparation for that meet, DZO Rook Nelson kindly agreed to allow teams passes at the USPA competition level of 10,500 ft rather than the more usual 13,000.

Four of the five teams attending the meet opted to compete over ten rounds. The Skydive Chicago staff did an outstanding job hosting the meet, which I hope was a nice warm-up for them for next month's event. Also, I want to thank Lem Castro for returning for his third stint as meet coach this season.

SDC On The Fly was again the only Rookie Class team. Competing for the first time this season with their regular line-up, OTF scored an impressive 48 over six rounds, 20 points higher than at Meet 3. That score easily clinched the final MWSL meet PD Challenge of 2007, which is awarded to the team improving the most from their previous meet. OTF came back on Sunday and completed all 10 rounds with an 8.5 average. The next meet for OTF will be the USPA Nationals 2007 where they get to try their hand at the AA Class blocks.

There was a great race in AAA Class between CSC Rhythm and SDC Furies. CSC Rhythm was without their player coach Robert Chromy, but Tom Bohm, an experienced MWSL 4-way competitor, filled in ably. The Furies built a 3-point lead midway through, largely thanks to an outstanding 17-pointer in Round 3. But a bad exit cost them in Round 4, and the remaining draw was too slow to give them a realistic chance to catch up.

The results of the 6-round meet was a 2-point win for Rhythm, 66 to 64. The teams matched each other over Rounds 7-10 with 46 points, giving Rhythm an 11.2 average for the weekend to the Furies 11.0 average. It will be exciting to see two local teams competing with some of the top recreational teams in the country next month.

The AA Class featured a very impressive performance by SDC Quattro (Lisa DeSimone - Inside Center, Todd DeSimone- Point, Keith Fenech - Outside Center, Shannon Sweet - Tail, Charles Lane - Camera) making their 2007 competitive debut. Their meet included a strong 22-pointer in the all-random sequence of Round 3. The 22-pointer ties the record for the highest competition score by an MWSL team, set by Furies last year at the USPA Nationals 2006.

Probably not coincidentally, Quattro has two of the four members of that 2006 Furies line-up, Lisa and Shannon. Quattro wound up with a 6-round total of 70 points for an 11.7 average, easily topping the other AA Class team, CSC False Religion, who scored 47 points. False Religion completed all ten rounds of the weekend's draw finishing with an 8.7 average for the meet.

While the results of the MWSL teams at the USPA Nationals 2007 will count towards the NSL standings, MWSL Meet 4 was the final locally run meet of 2007. Though the previously mentioned weather issues nagged all of the teams all season long, that did not stop them from posting the highest scores in the history of the MWSL.

Most of the members of these high scoring teams have their roots in low experience, but highly motivated Rookie and A Class level MWSL teams. Hopefully 2008 will see a revival in participation at those levels. As always, thanks to all the competitors, MWSL DZs, Lem Castro, Todd Hawkins, the NSL, Performance Designs and everyone else who helped make the 2007 season a success. See you next month at Skydive Chicago.

Written by MWSL Director Alan Butt