Kids & Family

Medford Student Wins Gold at Skydiving Championships

The teams jumped from more than two miles above the ground.

Matt Leonard, a UMass Amherst student from Medford, won gold with his four-person team last week at the 2014 National Collegiate Parachuting Championships in Florida.

The event, put on by the U.S. Parachute Association, is the oldest and biggest collegiate skydiving competition in the world, according to the organization. It took place at the Florida Skydiving Center in Lake Wales, Fla.

Leonard’s team, “And in First Place,” took gold in the four-way advanced formation skydiving event. His UMass teammates were Derek Clougherty, Jennifer Shumway and Casey Tylek. Shumway and Tylek also won the two-way formation competition as team “Baby Blues.”

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The teams were judged on their formations. They jumped from more than two miles above the ground.

In other events, teams were judged on their accuracy.

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Leonard is a senior at UMass majoring in chemical engineering. He and his teammates train at the Jumptown skydiving center in Orange.


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