posted Oct 14th, 2014 - The Advanced Class competition for the gold medals at the USPA Nationals 2014 was actually a duel between two teams whose lineups were very similar to each other.

Both teams had members in the lineups who have competed in USPA's Open Class competition at previous national championships.

Dallas 350 members Scott Latinis and Ron Hill are two highly experienced 4-way competitors, who were player coaches this year for Lucas King and Scott Levy.

The Misfits had Open Class competitors Rodney Cruce and Gilles Dutrisac in the lineup, who joined forces with Kim Hollander and David Grabowski.

It was no surprise that those two teams did not allow any other Advanced Class team to get anywhere close to the gold medal position. Even Dallas Khaos Black, in 3rd place with player coach Ari Perelman, could not win or tie a single round.

USPA Nationals 2014		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA/Advanced Class	L,F,3,D	8,C,Q,A	9,G,11	P,1,B,H	16,N,15	6,K,J,19	13,14,17	4,O,20	21,10,22	7,2,12	Total	Avg
1	Dallas 350 (US)	18	17	17	20	14	16	11	12(-1)	13	13	151	15.1
2	Misfits (US)	18	17	16	20	13	14(-2)	10(-1)	14	9	13	144	14.4
3	Dallas Khaos Black (US)	17	14	15	19	11	14	9	13	11	11	134	13.4

Ron Hill, Lucas King and Scott Levy were in the Dallas 350 lineup of 2013 when they missed a medal position at the USPA Nationals only after two bad rounds with 7-pointers. Solly Williams had filled an open slot. Scott Latinis trained and competed with the team throughout the 2014 season, and the consistency payed out this year.

The Misfits were also a trained team. Gilles Dutrisac missed a few FSL Tunnel Kickers when he had training camps scheduled with his team for the USPA Nationals. Three of the Misfits (Rodney Cruce, Kim Hollander, David Grabowski) also knew each from the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2014 where they had competed with Bob Schuyler in the lineup (Sloths on Speed). Kim Hollander and David Grabowski also had an earlier reunion with the Ranch Fallout lineup at the SkyVenture New Hampshire Indoor Fest.

Both teams would have had a competitive standing in the Open Class competition, as well, as the combined leaderboard is showing.

USPA Nationals 2014		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	L,F,3,D	8,C,Q,A	9,G,11	P,1,B,H	16,N,15	6,K,J,19	13,14,17	4,O,20	21,10,22	7,2,12	Total	Avg
8	Dallas 350 (US)	18	17	17	20	14	16	11	12	13	13	151	15.1
9	Misfits (US)	18	17	16	20	13	14	10	14	9	13	144	14.4
10	Bodyflight Bonobos (INT)	18	15	14	19	12	16	13	12	12	11	142	14.2
11	Dallas Khaos Black (US)	17	14	15	19	11	14	9	13	11	11	134	13.4
12	Le Verve XP (INT)	16	16	16	15	13	11	9	14	11	11	132	13.2
13	Spaceland Lite (US)	13	14	14	18	13	16	10	10	10	11	129	12.9

The combined AAA Class leaderboard also shows an Open Class team in last place that would enjoy a more competitive situation in USPA's Advanced Class. Spaceland Lite won the Advanced Class competition at the USPA Nationals 2011 with a 13.1 average.

The team staid together without increasing the training schedule much, and the scores in the Open Class (2012: 13.9 - 2013: 14.2 - 2014: 12.9) remained roughly on the same level. However, the previous champions have not been eligible any longer for the Advanced Class, where the new contenders could not try to defeat a defending champion, who was not there any longer.

The combined leaderboard shows that Spaceland Lite would not even have finished in the Advanced Class medal positions this year. Hats up to a truly committed and perfectly fitted team for the Advanced Class that has come back for the third time in the Open Class to compete with the pros...