Club semifinalists? Check. National teams? Check. International stars? Check. The US Open is one of the best events of the year.
August 1, 2024 by Edward Stephens and Laura Osterlund in Preview with 0 comments
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One of the premier ultimate events of the year, the 2024 US Open features all 12 of last years club semifinalists, as well as several of the other top competitors in each of the three divisions. There are also, as always, a few top international sides in the field – including a few National teams preparing for the World Ultimate Championships later this summer.
Tournament Profile
- Date: August 2-4
- Location: Aurora, Colorado
- Weather: Mostly sunny with highs in the mid-90s and 10+ mph winds; low chance of rain Friday and Sunday
- Top 25 teams: 10 women’s div. / 9 mixed div. / 9 men’s div.
- Schedules & Results
- Event Page
Streaming Schedule
All Ultiworld Standard and All-Access subscribers (or those with a US Open Event Pack) will have access to watch the live broadcasts from this year’s US Open, where we will have three games in each broadcasting round.
The broadcast schedule can be found below:
All times are MT.
Friday, August 2
8:30 AM: Canada vs. Schwa [W] | Dingoes vs. Revolver [M] Canada vs. Lawless [X]
10:45 AM: Fury vs. Brute Squad [W] | Canada vs. DiG [M] | AMP vs. Hybrid [X]
1:00 PM: Mixtape vs. Voltaje [X] | PoNY vs. Condors [M] | BENT vs. Nightlock [W]
3:15 PM: Prequarterfinal TBD | Prequarterfinal TBD | Prequarterfinal TBD
Saturday, August 3
8:30 AM: Quarterfinal TBD | Quarterfinal TBD | Quarterfinal TBD
10:45 AM: Semifinal [W] | Semifinal [W] | Quarterfinal [X]
1:15 PM: Semifinal [M] | Semifinal [M]
3:45 PM: Semifinal [X] | Semifinal [X]
Sunday, August 4
8:30 AM: Third Place Final [M] | Third Place Final [W]
9:00 AM: Final [W]
10:45 AM: Third Place Final [X]
11:30 AM: Final [M]
2:00 PM: Final [X]
Men’s Division
Major Debuts
While several of the top contenders already took the field at last month’s Pro-Elite Challenges (East and West), we have yet to see the 2024 debuts of the most recent champions: #1 Washington DC Truck Stop (2023) and #3 Denver Johnny Bravo. That will change this weekend, with both gearing up for a title run in a division that has featured a different program wearing gold medals in October every year since 2016.
Most of the band is back together for Truck Stop this season. 2023 Player of the Year Christian Boxley is the feature name from nearly a full line’s worth of returners who will be cleating up for Team USA at Worlds – which is to say, they don’t lack for stars in general. They do, however, lack the team’s longtime North Star, Rowan McDonnell. After eight seasons as a program cornerstone, McDonnell has taken his talents to #4 Boston DiG, and Truck Stop will have to figure out which other players can assume his mantle. One possible player who might help offset some of the loss in production? Budding French superstar Elliot Bonnet, who will get his first taste of USAU club action this weekend.
Johnny Bravo also deal with some key losses with this season’s turnover, most notably defensive anchor Cody Spicer. But with players like all-around whiz Quinn Finer and playmaker Noah Coolman still on board, their ceiling remains high. Keep an eye on a pair of newcomers who could potentially have a massive impact: super-experienced Grant Lindsley and up-and-coming worldbeater Tobias Brooks. Both of them have the sort of talent on which a team can build a championship.
The National Sides
Team Canada, having finished their European tour (Windmill, London Invite), are using North America for the final phase of their competitive tune-ups. Stars from programs like #12 Toronto GOAT, #19 Vancouver Furious George, #21 Ottawa Phoenix, and Winnipeg General Strike will test their collective mettle against the best USAU clubs. As a bonus, they’ve borrowed one of #2 Chicago Machine’s brightest lights for the weekend: Malik Auger-Semmar.
Or will the stronger side be Australia? The Dingoes1 are flying a long way for competition that can help them hone their edge. Most of the roster will be on the ground in Colorado, including 2022 World Games standouts like Rob Andrews, Alex Ladomatos, and Sam McGuckin, as well as the ageless Tom Rogacki. Longtime handler Tom Tulett, though, is not listed on the event roster.
Other Notes from around the Division
- All four of the PEC East/West finalists are adding firepower. Machine bring in perhaps the most highly anticipated piece: 2023 European Player of the Year Daan de Marrée, making his USAU club debut. The tournament will also see Rowan McDonnell sporting a DiG kit after nearly a decade with Truck Stop. Meanwhile, some of this spring’s college stars are also on the move, as we see how #5 Portland Rhino Slam! incorporate Henry Ing and what sort of a boost #6 San Francisco Revolver will get from the duo of Leo Gordon and Dexter Clyburn.
- #11 New York PoNY look to rebound from a set of subpar Sunday results at PEC East: they were 0-3 in the championship and placement brackets. This time around they’ll have Conrad Schloer and Calvin Brown2 to help shoulder the load.
Women’s Division
Knotted Five
The top of the women’s division is as tight as it has ever been. There are at least five clubs – perhaps six3, but we’ll save that for the next section – with credible championship potential, and all of them will attempt to put their stamp on the US Open by picking apart the other four. Defending national champions #5 Boston Brute Squad are at the back of the (bunched) line at the moment, courtesy of a PEC East semifinal defeat at the hands of #4 Raleigh Phoenix. US Open will see them double their active European cohort by bringing in the incomparable Levke Walczak to complement the dynamic force that is Floor Keulartz.
Speaking of Phoenix, the blue chip combination of Alex Barnett, Mary Rippe, Lindsay Soo, and Dawn Culton was extremely potent at PEC East, and they showed off depth to match every other contender. If they can consistently slow the kinds of isolation attacks that #1 Washington DC Scandal employed to beat them in that tournament’s final, they are poised to climb even further up the pecking order. Scandal, of course, will by no means make that task easy for Phoenix or anyone else. Early returns suggest that Claire Trop and Marie Périvier are a dream cutter pairing. They’ll get their holds, and they’ll get their breaks, too: between Kami Groom and Amanda Murphy, they may have the best two matchup defenders in the country.
Or will the top team this weekend come from the western half of the continent? #2 Denver Molly Brown have perhaps made the strongest opening statement of any team, putting away #3 San Francisco Fury without the services of 2022 Player of the Year Valeria Cárdenas. She’s set to reappear alongside sister Manu Cárdenas, Claire Chastain, and the rest of a talented side. Despite their universe point loss in semis at last year’s Nationals, they have everything they need to capture the program’s second championship in 2024. Fury, meanwhile, boast of an array of stars spanning several generations – Cree Howard, Carolyn Finney, Anna Nazarov, Sharon Lin, Julianna Werffeli, Shayla Harris, Dena Elimelech, Anna Thompson, Esther Filipek – to keep a steady grip on their mind-blowing streak of semis-or-better results at Nationals despite turning over some important players from that run this season.
Gathering of International Stars and Teams
Who’s the best player in the world right now? It’s an open discussion that likely won’t see anything close to a definitive answer until the World Ultimate Championships in Australia. That said, most of the current candidates will take the field in Aurora to put a word in for themselves. We’ll see Trop, Groom, Elimelech, and Kaela Helton from the US; Colombia’s Cárdenas twins and Yina Cartagena; and Walczak of Germany.4
And don’t leave out Canadian Britt Dos Santos from your tally. Every bit as dominant as the players above, the #6 Toronto 6ixers cutter has been magnificent on the global stage in recent years. She’ll be trading her club kit for Team Canada colors this weekend, as they get a final tune up before Worlds. Joining her: 6ixers teammates Sarah Jacobsohn and Tiffany Zhang; #12 Vancouver Traffic stalwarts Sarah Norton and Catherine Menzies; and #10 Quebec Iris stars Anouchka Beaudry and Pénélope Robert. They are a threat to win the tournament.
While Colombia are not making an appearance as a national side this weekend, nearly a full line of their top-end will be divided among three US clubs. Between the Cárdenas sisters on Molly Brown, Cartagena and Ximena Montaña playing for #7 New York Bent, and Brute’s Mangie Forero and Laura ‘Capi’ Ospina, the US Open will give viewers a fantastic sense of how a world medal favorite stacks up. Finally, while Team Mexico are not currently near the top of the international order, it’s always worth watching Melisa Paredes in action. As one of the world’s most talented receivers, she’s sure to make some highlight-reel plays.
Other Notes from around the Division
- Both BENT and #8 San Diego Flipside have rosters that, on paper, could contend with the division’s elite. Getting a win over one of the top-five in practice, though, is a lot harder. Can either or both make the leap into the upper crust with a big performance this weekend?
- The US Open isn’t often the tournament where bids are won or lost. This year might be different, though: #20 Northampton Starling, riding the explosive play of Paige Howell (among others), are sitting just outside the bubble. A strong performance could net the Northeast region a fifth (!) bid. It might come at the expense of the Southwest, who could use a big weekend from #19 San Francisco Nightlock if they expect another three-bid season.
Mixed Division
Clash of the Undefeateds
According to the unofficial (but excellent and reliable) frisbee-rankings.com, there are only five undefeated teams in the division’s top-50. That tally will drop by at least one this weekend, as only one of the US Open’s top seeds, #1 Fort Collins shame. and #2 Seattle BFG, can make it through Sunday with a clean record.5 The defending national champions shame. essentially make their elite-level debut after running through a weaker field at Colorado Summer Solstice in June. They’ve retained most of their best players from the 2023 title run (Player of the Year Jade McLoughlin, First-Team All-Club Owen Westbrook, Breakout Player of the Year Rory Veldman) and have added a premier handler in Simon Montague. With a lineup like that, who could possibly stop them from (at minimum) seriously threatening a repeat title?
Enter BFG, who pushed shame. to universe point in semis at Nationals last year and have all the pieces to push past them any time between now and October. Not only have they restocked the roster with stars (Sadie Jazierski, Mario O’Brien, Lukas Ambrose, Jocelyn Sun) to offset the (admittedly significant) turnover, but, thanks to a sweep at the highly competitive PEC West, they’ve already shown they can play at a top-of-the division level. That run includes handing the fierce #3 Vancouver Red Flag their only loss of the season so far. Heading into the tournament, shame. and BFG are the teams with the targets on their backs.
AMP’ed for Another Open
The trouble with predicting a BFG/shame. showdown in the final is the existence of a team who have made this event their happy place over the past couple of years: #6 Philadelphia AMP. You can be sure they’re looking for the triple-peat. But, with their large roster turnover, can they do it? The losses of some of their heavy hitters, such as Raha Mozaffari, Henry Ing, and Linda Morse, to name a few, not to mention the loss of long-time coach Pat Sherlock, raise questions that have not yet been answered. The Philadelphians arguably haven’t looked too shabby so far, despite a near-crumble-turned-comeback in the PEC East quarterfinals against DC Rally. Their only loss was in the PEC East final against the newly minted #5 Austin Disco Club. The overall level of the competition this weekend will be a bit more powerful, but Lindsay McKenna, Paul Owens, Delrico Johnson, and Rachel Alfano are poised to make a big impact. A third straight US Open title is an open question, yes, but certainly not not out of the question.
Are Team Canada the Favorites?
With apologies to shame., BFG, AMP, and the rest of the top US clubs in the field, the actual tournament favorites might well be the all-star Canadian delegation. They’re using the US Open as a last chance to get high-level competitive reps before they make a run at a medal in Australia at WUC. The lineup is chock full of certified stars: Ellen Au-Yeung, Mika Kurahashi, Alec Arsenault, Toly Vasilyev, and Laurel Jay are only a starting point. They’ve already beaten BFG at Torneo Eterna Primavera, placing second with a loss to Team USA, and they won Sunbreak. A US Open title is not a certainty given the strength of the competition, but it is well within reach and would give them a tremendous confidence boost to cap off their training.
Other Notes from around the Division:
- The other two 2023 semifinalists, #8 Ann Arbor Hybrid and #9 New York XIST, stumbled (at least, compared to the standard of their 2023 heights) somewhat at their PEC East outings. They both appear to have the necessary depth and the star power to reach that level again. What can they do this weekend to get back on course?
- The lower half of the field is a murky picture at best. Several clubs – #7 San Francisco Mischief, #11 Seattle Mixtape, #14 Arizona Lawless, #15 Boston Slow – feel like potential bracket busters come Nationals. That kind of potential would solidify if any of them can notch multiple wins over the top six seeds. Since chaos is endemic to the mixed division, assume that at least one of them will. The question, then: which one?
Every Australian Worlds team is named for one of the country’s native animal species. ↩
Brown is listed as a practice player on the team’s roster announcement ↩
-ers ↩
Sadly, Team Australia’s Cat Phillips and Kaede Yoshida will not be on hand this weekend to complete the set. ↩
The others are Dallas Public Enemy, Athens Murmur, and #22 Huntsville Pyro. ↩
