posted Oct 23rd, 2019 - The 4-way Women competition at the FAI Outdoor World Cup included an interesting re-match of three of the four teams who were eligible for the event after competing and qualifying at the USPA Nationals 2018.

Five 4-way Women teams had registered for the 4-way Open Class competition at last year's national championship (Phoenix XP - Perris Force - Victorious Secret - SNE Fly Girls - Spaceland Heatwave), and they had their eyes on the four 4-way Women slots at the world cup a year later. Three of them (Phoenix XP - Victorious Secret - SNE Fly Girls) eventually signed up for the world cup, which took place this month at Skydive Arizona.

Defiance member Ben Liston, who won his first Open Class bronze medal at the USPA Nationals in September and competed at the world cup in 4-way and 8-way, remembered that SNE Fly Girls were first planning to compete in USPA's Advanced Class at the national championship last year. He knows the team well, as they are also located in New England and have participated for years in his annual indoor competition at SkyVenture New Hampshire.

He was also helping the team with coaching and advice during training camps at SkyVenture New Hampshire and Skydive New England, as all Defiance members have been doing. Ben Liston and his team mate James "Bu" Klinge both encouraged the SNE Fly Girls to sign up for the Open Class competition at the USPA Nationals 2018, so they would have at least a shot at one of the four slots that would qualify U.S. 4-way Women teams for the FAI World Cup 2019.

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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

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SNE Fly Girls eventually agreed and managed to outscore one other 4-way Women team last year (Spaceland Heatwave) to win their slot for the world cup, together with Phoenix XP, Perris Force and Victorious Secret. Three of the four teams then signed up for the world cup, where Phoenix XP won the 4-way Women bronze medals for the U.S. delegation at Skydive Arizona.

SNE Fly Girls and Victorious Secret had their re-match in Eloy this month, and the New England team even turned the outcome a year after the first match that Victorious Secret had won easily.

The Fly Girls had continued with training and competition after the USPA Nationals 2018, while Victorious Secret only came back for the world cup. In fact, SNE Fly Girls were the only U.S. team who even managed to score higher at the world cup than at this year's national championship, and they were one of the very few teams who posted new team record numbers with the slow competition draw in Eloy.

The SNE Fly Girls had a change in the lineup at the end of the 2018 season when Beth York stepped back to become the alternate and Monique Lai took the outside center slot. The new lineup competed for the first time at the SkyVenture New Hampshire Indoor Championship 2019 and then again in the Advanced Class of the USPA Nationals 2019.

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FAI Outdoor World Cup 2019			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Women		13,11,16		P,22,4		O,7,21		9,20,G		18,15,L		K,10,3		6,14,C		1,M,A,17		F,D,Q,8		2,5,E		Total	Avg
1	Aerodyne Weembi Girls	FR	17		19		25		20		20		19		20		23		25	-1	21		209	20.9
2	NFTO	UK	17		17		23		19	-1	17		17		19		21		23	-1	20		193	19.3
3	Phoenix XP	US	13		13		17		14		13		12	-1	14		17		18	-1	14		145	14.5
4	Skynamite	DE	13		12		18		16		11	-2	13		13		15	-1	16	-3	16		143	14.3
5	SNE Fly Girls	US	11		11	-1	15	-1	14		11		12		13		14	-1	16		12		129	12.9
6	Victorious Secret	US	9		11	-1	14		10	-2	11		11		12		16	-1	14		14		122	12.2
7	Alola	UK	9	-1	10	-2	13		10	-1	9	-1	9	-1	9	-1	12	-1	16		11		108	10.8

SNE Fly Girls - Victorious Secret at the FAI Outdoor World Cup 2019 - Video Footage Courtesy of FAI/IPC/OmniSkore!HD

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They were well prepared for the re-match with Victorious Secret, who even skipped the USPA Nationals this year, as they had only aimed at the FAI World Cup 2019. Victorious Secret member Christy West still competed with Aviatrix at the USPA Nationals before the world cup and won the qualification for the FAI World Meet 2020. Only one team competes for each country at a world meet, which was also the reason for SNE Fly Girls to sign up for the Advanced Class competition at the USPA Nationals this year.

Victorious Secret alternate Sandra Van Der Bilt competed with Aviatrix, as well, and will travel to Russia next year together with Christy West.

The SNE Fly Girls members have their competition history in New England where they competed with different lineups of Brian Touhey's indoor teams at the SkyVenture New Hampshire indoor competition. Ben Liston said that they also used a great opportunity in January this year. He had invited Eliana Rodriguez as the meet coach for the event, who had agreed to offer additional coaching prior to the event.

The Fly Girls were excited and inspired after the training with the most successful female 4-way competitor in history. They met Eliana Rodriguez again at the world cup this month and could share their experiences. Ben Liston said that they were very elevated after the world cup and that they were already thinking about plans for the near future. Ben Liston himself is now changing direction. At this time of the year, he is now switching to his role as the meet director and to the preparations for the next SkyVenture New Hampshire meet in January...