A first-time national champion is guaranteed in the Mixed Division!
October 27, 2024 by Edward Stephens in Preview with 0 comments
Ultiworld’s coverage of the 2024 Club Championships 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.
A first-time national champion is guaranteed in the Mixed Division as #12 Lexington Sprocket take the field against #7 Ann Arbor Hybrid in the final.
Hybrid have been fixtures in the top of the division since a 2021 breakthrough saw them make the final in the program’s first trip to Nationals. They made the championship game again last season, helping to create the impression that they are due. Indeed, they were one of only three teams picked by Ultiworld’s staff before the tournament as potential winners.
Very few people by comparison – experts or otherwise – expected Sprocket to be playing on Sunday. The fourth-year club’s previous highest placement was a quarters appearance in their first season. With a ho-hum 3-4 record against Nationals teams heading into the tournament and a third-place finish at Northeast Regionals, Sprocket’s run to the final is the single biggest surprise of the tournament across all divisions.
Hybrid tallied a 15-9 victory at PEC East in the teams’ only head-to-head matchup this season.
Sprocket have been on fire since suffering a tournament-opening loss to #14 Nashville ‘Shine. They comprehensively beat crosstown rivals #9 Boston Slow and #4 Fort Collins shame. to win the pool. The bracket wins they added against #8 Seattle Mixtape and #1 Seattle BFG mean their path to the final took them through each of the last three champions.
Hybrid, if anything, led an even more charmed weekend. They posted an average +5.6 goal differential across five undefeated rounds – in other words, their average opponent at Nationals hasn’t even reached double digits. The list of top teams who fell to them so far this weekend includes #3 Austin Disco Club and, in a one-sided semifinal, #5 Minneapolis Drag’n Thrust.
Laura Gerencser (9G, 2A) and Aaron Bartlett (9G, 9A) are among Hybrid’s top-performing offensive players. Sara Nitz and Team USA duo Nathan Champoux and Rachel Mast1 lead the defensive effort, with Dalton Smith (14A, 8D) taking on quarterback duties for break chances.
The undisputed pillar of Sprocket’s offense is 2021 All-Club 1st Team selection and three-time D-I Men’s 1st Team All-American Tannor Johnson-Go (11G, 23A). He has been ably supported this weekend by Hazel Ostrowski (7G, 5A) and Zach Singer (6G, 11A). The club’s D-line anchors are Liv Player, Ivan Tran, and Wilhelmina Graff.
The winner of Sunday’s final will become the division’s 19th different champion in its 26-year history. Tune in live with an Ultiworld subscription at 12:30 PM PT on October 26 to find out whether Hybrid or Sprocket will take the 2024 title, exclusively on Ultiworld.
Mast’s status for the final is questionable after leaving the field with an injury during the semifinal ↩
