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Virginia Tech’s competitive skydiving team, VTSD, has been crowned the national champion at the United States Parachute Association’s National Skydiving Championships in Texas.

The team’s four Tech students placed first in the intermediate division of the 4-way formation competition.

Andrew Happick, Doug Barron, Joey Coffineau, Ben Worral and graduate cameraman Jamie Sides took part in the contest from Oct. 11-15.

“It was relieving and overwhelming at the same time,” Baron said. “It was awesome to win, but especially since we were battling weather, it was difficult.”

Tech’s team was the only non-military collegiate team to compete at the national championships, an event that draws in skydivers from around the world.

“There were so many people there that you have heard about and that are known worldwide,” Happick said. “And they’re all in one place.”

“We were star-struck,” Barron said. “We were one of the youngest teams there. Most teams’ average age was in the mid-30s, and we’re just a couple college students.”

The team averaged a score of 13.1 over the course of the 10-round competition, beating the second-place team by nearly two points.

“Any jump you can walk away from is a good one,” Barron said. “But as far as the competition goes, there is a draw, and every team does the same four or five formations for each round.”

“The judges give you points based on if each formation is correctly built or not,” Happick said. “Jamie, our cameraman, shoots with multiple cameras, and that footage is used by the judges to score us.”

By the end of the ninth round, the team knew it pretty much had the victory sealed, Happick said.

Before the national championships, the team spent much of its time preparing in South Carolina at Skydive Carolina, its sponsoring training facility.

“We aimed to do one hour a month in the wind tunnel, and when we weren’t competing we would aim to make it down to Chester, S.C., where we would do about 10 jumps every weekend,” Barron said.

The funds to cover traveling and training — estimated at nearly $10,000 — came directly out of the teammates’ pockets.

Some Skydive Carolina staff decided to support VTSD for the national championships after working together by tagging along with the team to Texas.

“Their training was as rigorous as I have seen in a long time for guys who are not paid to jump,” said James La Barrie, general manager of Skydive Carolina. “They drove a long time to train here and pretty much worked sunrise to sunset when they were here.”

VTSD members now have their eyes set directly on the USPA Collegiate Parachuting Championships in December, where they will compete with collegiate teams from across the United States.

However, to compete again at the U.S. nationals with the same team after winning the intermediate division, VTSD would have to move up to the advanced division.

“We’re trying to decide if we want to stay together as a team for nationals in 2010 or not,” Happick said. “It is something we’d like to do, but we’re unsure as two of us will be graduating and the commitment is much larger.”

Still, La Barrie sees a bright future ahead for VTSD in the skydiving world.

“They were like a Cinderella story,” La Barrie said. “By the end of the competition, they captured everyone’s attention. The best in the world knew who they were.