posted Sep 26th, 2018 - The NSL News coverage of the USPA Nationals 2018 was not completed yet when the attention shifted to the ESL Championship 2018. The aftermath now continues with another team that will compete for the U.S. delegation at the upcoming FAI World Meet 2018.

Phoenix XP is the U.S. national team in 4-way Women. The team project was launched at the beginning of the 2017 season with the goal to qualify as the national team and compete in Australia. This goal was accomplished at the USPA Nationals 2017, where Phoenix XP finished as the best 4-way Women team in the United States.

There was another goal, too, which was a set of medals at the next world meet. The United States are the defending world champion in 4-way Women, after the Golden Knights won the title at the FAI Mondial 2016 after a dramatic battle with the French national team, the French Weembi Girls.

It was a rocky road to the gold medals for the Golden Knights in 2016, as the team had to deal with a personnel change just a few months before the world meet, when Outside Center Angela Nichols stepped back. Fortunately for the U.S. team, SDC Rhythm XP member JaNette Lefkowitz was available to fill the slot and help to win the 4-way Women world championship title.

USPA Nationals 2018		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open	J,19,K,22	P,13,A,E	H,G,Q,B,21	9,2,L	C,14,4	O,16,3	1,15,10	M,20,11	F,D,18,6	5,12,17	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	23	29	34	28	23	24	19	24	26	25	255	25.5
2	SDC Rhythm XP	20	25	33	26	20	18	17	21	23	20	223	22.3
3	Airspeed Odyssey	20	25	28	22	18	20	17	19	20	17	206	20.6
4	Defiance	19	23	25	21	18	21	15	21	21	19	203	20.3
5	Ranch 2nd Generation	17	22	20	22	17	18	15	17	21	19	188	18.8
6	Spaceland Lite	15	19	24	19	16	18	12	17	17	14	171	17.1
7	Phoenix XP	17	17	21	18	13	17	12	16	16	14	161	16.1
8	Perris Force	12	11	21	17	13	13	12	17	14	14	144	14.4
9	Spaceland Dallas 350	17	0	17	17	13	16	13	14	20	16	143	14.3
10	Victorious Secret	11	13	16	12	10	9	9	12	13	10	115	11.5
11	SNE Fly Girls	8	8	10	12	9	11	9	9	8	8	92	9.2
12	Spaceland Heatwave	9	11	11	6	6	9	7	7	9	9	84	8.4

Phoenix XP ran into a similar situation this summer when Morgan Womble got injured and had to be replaced. Former SDMW NEXT member Megan George, USPA Advanced Class champion of 2016, has been able to help out and competed with Phoenix XP at the USP Nationals this month.

It turned out that Morgan Womble would not be able to recover early enough for the team to be ready for the World Championship of Formation Skydiving next month, and Megan George will continue with the team throughout the event.

The former NEXT member has performed on a 17+ level with her previous team and was a great solution for the troubling situation. However, it would be impossible for any team in 4-way Women to challenge the Aerodyne Weembi Girls this year, and the U.S. team had to get used to the perspective that the 4-way Women title will go back to France this year.

Phoenix XP was and still is a strong contender for the FAI medals in 4-way Women behind France, even though it has become more difficult to accomplish this goal, as well.

FAI World Meet 2018			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Women Power Ranking Medals		TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	Total	Avg
1	Aerodyne Weembi Girls	FR	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2	NFTO	UK	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
3	Fuzion Voltige	CA	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
3	Phoenix XP	US	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

NFTO, the British national team in the same category, won the national championships with a 20+ average and have their eyes on the FAI silver medals after winning bronze in 2016.

Even the set of bronze medals will not be easy to win for the U.S. team this year. Fuzion Voltige, Canada's national team in 4-way Women, will be well prepared to turn their 4th place of 2016 into a set of medals in Australia. The previous Fuzion lineup missed the bronze medals in 2016 by only four points (175 - 171) behind NFTO, and they had two years to get ready for the next world meet, one year with new team member Stephanie Longchamps.

Phoenix XP with Morgan Womble was able to keep up with the Canadian team at the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2018, where the teams were tied after ten rounds and Fuzion Voltige won the duel only after a tie-breaking extra round.

Fuzion Voltige has trained with the same lineup ever since and is also aiming at the silver medals, while Phoenix XP was interrupted with the preparations for the world meet. The Golden Knights showed the way how to deal with obstacles in 2016, and Phoenix XP will have to copy the reigning world champions to get to the medal positions this year...