Programmatic Success the Real Winner on Day One
May 19, 2024 by Jenna Weiner and Theresa Diffendal in Recap with 0 comments
Ultiworld’s coverage of the 2024 college ultimate season are 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.
Middlebury’s Claire Babbott-Bryan, Kathryn You Mak, and Niamh Carty. Carleton’s Maya Kalmus, Harper Brooks-Kahn, and Alex Rowell. What do these players have in common? All graduated in 2023 and all were key contributors to their team’s runs to last year’s national final. With the sheer volume and talent gone with the graduating class, 2024 proffered a potential changing of the guard, a renewed chance for breakthrough teams and players to make their mark.
One of the great joys of D-III ultimate, after all, is the unexpected. Those teams that emerge from nowhere and suddenly make a deep bracket run or that player who bursts onto the scene with an astounding offensive performance. That’s what makes the People’s Division what it is, a place of not-yet polished gems and of surprises that astound.
So, naturally, when looking at the bracket for women’s division after pool play, one might be drawn to the no.15 that made prequarters or the no.7 and no.10 seeds that won their pools and earned a bye to quarters outright. And while yes, some of those revelations are truly visionary, others — well, not so much.
Before we get to the counterpoint, let’s start by celebrating the newcomer on the block! Making their first bracket at their first Nationals in their first season are the Davenport Panthers, who beat no.6 Colorado College Zenith 12-11 in the only universe point finish of the day in the women’s division. Davenport, with their first-in-the-sport scholarships for the women’s ultimate team, represent the promise of all the D-III women’s division offers, and having them in the bracket, even if only for prequarters, is worth highlighting.
And now, to the counterpoint.
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