College Update: Florida Warm Up, Stanford Open

Florida Warm Up was last weekend's marquee event, but this coming weekend promises action for every division

February 5, 2024 by Felicia Zheng in News, Recap with 0 comments

Ultiworld’s coverage of the 2024 college season is presented by Spin Ultimate; all opinions are those of the author(s). Find out how Spin can get you, and your team, looking your best this season.

Throughout the spring season, we’ll publishing a bite-sized weekly recap of the action across the college division. This will serve as a supplement to our standard tournament reporting and offer a high-level look at the latest happenings and the biggest stories of the week.

Want your tournament listed? Submit a recap of what happened right here.

D-I Women’s Division

This was a quiet week for the division with few teams in action. Southern California Hellions of Troy and Cal Poly SLO Motion played at Stanford Open against a field of mostly D-III teams and B teams. The tournament was cut short due to inclement weather and teams missed out on bracket play.

Looking Ahead

Queen City Tune Up is a touchstone of college ultimate and a great early season temperature check. Top teams will be traveling from all over the country to test themselves against high-level opponents. The field this year includes nine top 25 teams – including three of our top five: #1 UNC Pleiades, #3 Vermont Ruckus, and #5 Carleton Syzygy. Who is the top dog in the Ohio Valley? How deep is the Atlantic Coast? Which teams are we underrating? Overrating? And can anyone challenge Pleiades? Stay tuned later this week for full tournament coverage of the event.

Speaking of Pleiades, this Friday marks the four year anniversary of their last sanctioned college loss¹ and the beginning of their undefeated reign over the division. To celebrate UNC’s historic streak, Ultiworld has put together a convenient Has Pleiades Lost counter. After all, it’s easy to lose count when three rookie classes have entered college in the time since Pleiades lost a game.

D-I Men’s Division

Georgia Conquers Exciting Florida Warm Up

Teams traveled to Tampa, Florida this week for a rainy weekend of ultimate at Florida Warm Up. Emerging victorious from Sunday’s soupy weather were #7 Georgia Jojah with a commanding 15-10 win over #4 Brown Brownian Motion. Georgia, led by Adam Miller and Aidan Downey, looked strong all weekend, finishing 7-1 with wins over #2 UMass Zoodisc, #8 Texas TUFF, and #14 BYU CHI.

After two undefeated runs at Warm Up last year, no teams emerged unscathed from the 2024 tournament. Brown had a great weekend, beating #20 Northeastern Huskies and #10 Minnesota Grey Duck on their way to the final. Their offense was humming, driven by Jacque Nissen, who posted a jaw-dropping 11 assists in the semifinal against Minnesota. With some of their stars at reduced capacity for now, Brown may have an even higher ceiling than they showed this weekend.

Finally, the Alabama-Huntsville Nightmares were the talk of the town at the tournament as an underdog team who played their way into the top bracket. Anyone who thought a UMass-UAH matchup in quarters would be an easy win for Zoodisc wasn’t factoring in the firepower of Kenni Taylor, Michael Poe, and Jonathan Sillivant. UAH drew within a goal late in the second half before UMass closed the game out 15-12. After this weekend, they’ll have boosted expectations going into a back-to-back weekend at Queen City Tune Up.

To get a detailed breakdown of the tournament, check out Ultiworld’s day-by-day coverage of Florida Warm Up.

Around the Division

• Stanford Open saw California D-I Regionals hopefuls face off. San Jose State and UC Davis performed the best of the group, taking second in their respective pools. Sunday bracket play was canceled by heavy rain.

Looking Ahead

Queen City Tune Up on the men’s division side does not pack as much firepower as the women’s division field, but it will feature top 25 teams such as #17 NC State Alpha, #25 Penn State Spank, and, of course, #1 UNC Darkside. The Chapel Hill club goes in as the heavy favorites, and the tournament will be a great test to see if any of these teams can hang with the reigning champions. UAH, coming off of their breakout performance at Florida Warm Up, will run it back for a second consecutive weekend. QCTU will be their chance to prove that wasn’t a one-off, but rather an indicator of greatness to come. Stay tuned for an announcement on Ultiworld’s coverage of the event!

D-III Women’s Division

#2 Carleton Eclipse looked dominant in most of the games they were able to play at Stanford Open, including a 13-3 win over fellow D-III Nationals hopefuls #20 Claremont Greenshirts. Other D-III teams in attendance included #3 Portland UPRoar, who went to universe with D-I Cal Poly SLO. Poor weather canceled Sunday’s action and prevented us from seeing how these teams would have performed in the bracket.

Looking Ahead

The D-III Grand Prix will be a busy weekend for the division’s top end as #2 Carleton Eclipse, #3 Portland, #6 Whitman, #7 Colorado College Zenith, and others meet in Oregon for a round robin and abbreviated bracket. Saturday will include a highly anticipated match-up between Carlton Eclipse and Portland. By the end of the weekend, we’ll know where things stand among these title contenders.

D-III Men’s Division

Around the Division

Franciscan made their debut this past weekend by winning Huckin’ in the Hills X. They took every team to the point cap on their way through the bracket and finished it off with a 15-12 win against Dayton in the final.

Stanford Open also hosted #21 Occidental Detox, Portland UPrise, Claremont Braineaters, and Puget Sound Postmen. In the only D-III match-up in pool play, Claremont had a decisive 10-6 victory over Portland. With Sunday canceled, we will have to wait until next week to see more D-III action.

Looking Ahead

The D-III Grand Prix will be a chance for Top 25 teams in #9 Whitman and #10 Lewis & Clark to make an early season statement. They’ll be the favorites going into the tournament against a field of local D-III contenders.

---

1. 12-9 to Carlton in the 2020 Queen City Tune Up final ↩