The eighth through fifth placed teams finished in accordance with their seeding into the final round.

In eighth place was the international team of Reto Zimmerman (Switzerland) and Karle Storz (Germany). This team surprised many competitors. Although Reto has been known throughout the freestyle community as a very talented jammer with strong athleticism and gymnastic skill, Karle is a relative newcomer as a freestyle specialist. In fact, this was Karl’s first FPA World’s! Karl demonstrated great simultaneous double spinning disc combinations and Reto complimented this with his tumbling and multi spinning catches. The close of the routine had several execution errors, thereby hurting their chances for seed busting in this round.

Seventh place went to the New York City team of Rob Fried and Doug Simon. These veterans showed some solid cooperative exchanges to a bluesy/rock saxophone beat. Rob did some restricted pull combinations while Doug showed the public not only controlled combinations, but that he can catch a crow with his eyes closed. The team finished strong even though they got into some trouble in the middle of their routine.

The sixth place team of Greg Riley and Mark Blakemore decided to give a great show for those basketball fans in the audience. Bringing onto the field two bags of undisclosed items, Greg and Mark quickly extricated two black Afro wigs and stripped down to basketball garb that depicted uniforms of Curly Neal and Medolark Lemon of the Harlem Globetrotters. To the Globetrotter’s theme music, Mark and Greg took turns with mirrored opening combinations. The fun continued as the team showed their "running man" and "moon-walking" skills while the other showcased his individual freestyle talent. Greg was "on" during the routine going dropless and hitting a beautiful coop with an upside down behind the back skid to Mark’s big finish. I can’t wait to see what’s in their bag o’ tricks next year!

Dan Yarnell and Steve Hanes had the next impressive display of technically difficult combinations that combined the "gumbiness" of Yarnell with the smooth body rolls and one-handed cartwheel feeds from Hanes. Dan played impeccably with big closing catches while Steve played more conservatively in the face of a few execution errors early in the routine. This team had potential to seed bust into the top four, but weren’t able to convert in the face of the tenacity of their competition. But watch for them in the future…they’re hungry!

Where would a final four be without Bill Wright and Larry Imperiale? There were lots of spectacular moves by these veterans. This fourth place team wowed the crowd with their smooth roll and flow combinations. Larry’s technically difficult cuff and bash moves to Bill’s rolling and spinning catch style made this team a pleasing accent to the finals. You can always count on superb presentation from this team. The two have always been a formidable team at world competitions and their command of the air game has earned them that reputation.

Combining head-banging alternative rock with the smooth sounds of the "Chairman of the Board" (Frank Sinatra) doesn’t seem to be the music that would put the crowd and judges into a team’s corner. Yet Arthur Coddington and Dave Lewis managed to utilize this concoction of tunes in order to clinch third place. Dave and Arthur’s multi-restricted, consecutive pull combinations, tips and coops, showed tremendous scope of difficulty and variety. Highlights included Dave’s combination of moves into a triple spinning arvon catch as well as a beautifully executed gitis pull off of Arthur’s restricted throw. Arthur also set the spectators and the judges into a frenzy of applause when he hit a quadruple spinning crow catch (I think this was during the co-op demo round)! With powerful two-disc handling, teamwork and difficult moves syncopated to the music, Arthur and Dave made a huge bid for the top spot.

A little over one point separated Randy Silvey and Dave Schiller’s second place finish from Arthur and Dave L. To the theme music of Deliverance, Dave resurrected a routine from the ‘96 World Championships and tweaked it to fit Randy’s presentational antics. Dressed as country bumpkins in the beginning, the team played a "can you top this" duet with two discs to the rhythms of the dueling guitars. After a crescendo of applause and a musical segue into Queen’s "We will rock you", the two fired up some intricate coops and consecutive tricks. The crowd appeal was evident after Dave S. showcased his consecutive, restricted, techno wizardry with a disc that made the hair on the back of their necks stand at attention. The icing on the cake came when Randy started his roll sequences and flinging his body into utter abandon while catching the disc. This team made it hard for the judges to look away to mark their scoring sheets. In the end, the judges rewarded them well but reserved the top honor for the team of Oberhaus and Murphy.