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                         January 9, 2004

Cadet parachute team earns 19 medals

Krupski named overall National Collegiate Champ

By Jim Fox
Assistant Editor

The cadet parachute team brought home 19 medals from the Collegiate National Parachuting Championships held at the Florida Skydiving Center in Lake Wales, Fla. from Dec. 28-31.

Eleven cadets earned 19 medals in both individual and team competitions, including junior Kevin Krupski who was named the overall 2003 National Collegiate Parachuting Champion.

Led by third-year coach Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Moore the young team improved its medal haul by a dozen compared to 2002.

Krupski, the team’s first national champion in 10 years, was first in both accuracy and style in the master’s category to claim overall top honors.

Senior Brent Hoops was second in Master’s style, and finished sixth overall.

Junior Erica Urban was second in Intermediate accuracy and fourth overall in her category, while fellow intermediate jumper junior Patrick Bell claimed second in style and fifth overall.

The 11 medalists took 13 of their medals in novice categories.

Sophomore Shane Sullivan took top honors in the Novice category earning firsts in both accuracy and formation. Classmates Bradley Nicka and Greg Hastings finished second and third overall, respectively. Nicka was second in both accuracy and formation, with Hastings pairing up with Sullivan for top honors in formation with a third place showing in accuracy.

Moore’s team looks strong for the future since only one of his 11 medalists is a senior. The rest of his medalists consist of three juniors and seven sophomores.

In fact, he looks to be much stronger come next season as his young team adds a full-time free-fall coach to his staff.

Krupski, his national champion, has logged 400 jumps since he began with the team in the spring of his plebe year back in 2002.

Eighteen colleges competed, including rival Air Force, which usually dominates along with select civilian schools, according to Moore.

Other schools at Lake Wales were Ohio State, North Carolina, Florida State, Texas A& M, UMass., Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech and Harvard.

The Falcons, who only compete in Master’s and Intermediate, added 13 medals to their coffers.

Navy did not send a team this year.

“The Air Force coach told me after the competition that he was pretty impressed with our team,” a proud Moore said Wednesday. “He told me that they will have to train much harder from now on to stay competitive.”

Moore said that Air Force admitted they didn’t even train for certain events anymore since they were used to being able to just show up and win.

Apparently, not anymore.