With the snow starting to melt, the college season heats up as we enter the latter half of the 2025 regular season
February 24, 2025 by Alex Rubin in Preview, Recap
Ultiworld’s coverage of the 2025 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.
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D-I Women’s Division
Ruckus Recovers
#7 Vermont Ruckus went undefeated at Commonwealth Cup Weekend 2, reminding opponents why they’re widely considered to be a title contender. Just a week after dropping bracket games to #4 Carleton Syzygy and #6 North Carolina Pleiades at Queen City Tune Up, Vermont doubled up every team they played, knocking off Ohio State Fever in the final, and clearly looked like the best team in attendance.
#20 Pennsylvania Venus and #21 Notre Dame Echo were the other two ranked teams in attendance. Venus dropped a nailbiter to Ohio State in their semifinal matchup while Echo met the same fate a round earlier. Virginia Hydra were the other big winner on the weekend, earning wins against both Pennsylvania and Notre Dame on their way to a surprise semifinal appearance.
Check out our Tournament Talk article for a fuller look at this tournament.
Around the Division
- D-III stole the show at Mardi Gras as Union Jillz and Trinity Altitude met in the final. Florida State Seminole Ladies were the highest ranked D-I team by the end of Saturday, but Sunday’s bracket games were rained out.
- Missouri Terror Mizzou took down Washington University Iron Horse to win Dust Bowl.
- College Huckfest was cancelled
Looking Ahead
The big event next weekend is Stanford Invite. #2 Tufts EWO, #8 UC Santa Cruz Slugs, #9 UC San Diego Dragon Coalition, #11 Cal Poly SLO SLO Motion, #12 Washington Element, #13 Stanford Superfly, #15 BYU CHI, #16 UC Davis Rogue, #17 UC Santa Barbara Burning Skirts, #22 UCLA BLU and #23 Northeastern Valkyries are the ranked teams who will be competing in some high level mid-season action. Ultiworld will have live streaming coverage of the event.
Other tournaments happening next weekend include Snow Melt, Midwest Throwdown, Garden State, Big Sky Brawl, Cherry Blossom Classic, and Huckleberry Flick.
D-I Men’s Division
Wilmington Wins a Bid to Their Own Tournament
UNC-Wilmington Seamen won their home tournament, Easterns Qualifier. Since UNCW as the host already has a bid to Easterns next month, presumably the bid that hung up for grabs will be claimed by finalist James Madison Hellfish, who made their way to the final with a universe point win over Indiana HooiserMama?s in quarters and an upset over Virginia Night Train in semis.
After their strong performance at Queen City Tune Up last weekend, #19 South Carolina Gamecock Ultimate was the favorite heading into the weekend. Despite an undefeated Saturday through pool play, SC1 was upset in their quarterfinal by the William & Mary Merry Men.
In fact, all four teams who won their pools on Saturday lost in quarters. Aside from the aforementioned South Carolina and Indiana, Emory Juice and McGill MUT won every game in pool play, but could not make it through one round of bracket play. All in all, no team went undefeated and the Atlantic Coast took up all four semifinal spots. As always, the battle to be the second best team in the region (behind #4 UNC Darkside) will be intense–though this year, it will be a struggle for any of these teams to earn a second bid if they keep beating each other.
Around the Division
- With heavy rain expected, Mardi Gras switched to a Saturday-only format. Ave Maria Gyrenes took down Florida in the final, 12-10. A D-III eligible team, Ave Maria is competing in the D-I division this season; this first tournament has them off to a positive start in a more competitive environment. Alabama Yellow Hammer and Tennessee-Chattanooga Swamp Donkeys were the other semifinalists; UT-C upset Texas A&M Dozen in quarters.
- North Texas UNT was the highest finishing D-I team at Dust Bowl with a third place placement. D-III’s Oklahoma Christian took home the title. More on this tournament in the D-III section below.
- George Mason Meteors won Monument Melee with a 12-10 win in the final over East Carolina Irates to cap off an undefeated weekend.
- West Chester lost on universe in the final of mixed D-I and D-III tournament Bring the Huckus, with Delaware Sideshow finishing next-highest among D-I teams at fifth.
Looking Ahead
Keep your eyes peeled for Smoky Mountain Invite next week. Thirteen of the sixteen teams competing were in the 2024 Nationals field, meaning every pool can be considered a “pool of death” and every game will matter. Ultiworld will have live streaming coverage of the event.
It’s a big weekend for regional tournaments too as Midwest Throwdown, Snow Melt, Huckin in the Hills, Garden State, Oak Creek Challenge, Big Sky Brawl, UMass Invite, Dayton Ultimate Disc Experience, Florida Warm Up Weekend 2, PLU BBQ , and Joint Summit all take place.
D-III Women’s Division
Victorious Circles
#5 Wesleyan Vicious Circles took home the Bring the Huckus title with a 6-0 weekend, including an 11-9 win over #4 Haverford and Bryn Mawr Sneetches in the final. Those two also met in power pool play on Saturday which again resulted in a two-point Wesleyan win.
The Sneetches were reportedly missing a large number of players, including All-American Zoe Costanza. Despite playing short handed, the Sneetches mounted a valiant comeback in the final after Wesleyan scored the first six points of the game unanswered. After their debut tournament, both of these teams are expected to be among the title contenders this season once everyone has their full complement of players healthy and available to play.
Around the Division
- D-III took gold and silver at Mardi Gras as #20 Union Jillz and #18 Trinity Altitude played back-to-back games, meeting in the final round of pool play and then again in the de facto final. Union came away with a 10-8 win. Sunday’s games were rained out, but these two were able to beat some D-I competition too in the games that were able to be played.
- A combination Reed College/Portland State team came away with the best record2 at PLU Women’s BBQ. The tournament was organized as one big round robin, so no formal champion was crowned.
- #2 St Olaf Vortex won their pool and made the semifinal at Dust Bowl, but lost to D-I’s Washington University Iron Horse once there. Truman State TSUnami defeated regional foes Colorado Mines Enthalpy and John Brown Skyfall, but did not make the championship bracket.
Looking Ahead
Lots of teams will see the field next week as the weather thaws much of the Northeast and Midwest.
- The aptly titled Snow Melt is headlined by #10 Colorado College Zenith.
- #3 Macalester Pursesnatchers and #19 Michigan Tech Superior Ma’s make their highly anticipated debut at Midwest Throwdown. The field also boasts Winona State Bad Monaz, Knox Alley Cats, and Truman State.
- Lehigh and Haverford/Bryn Mawr are surely itching to face off again at Cherry Blossom Classic, but the AC’s Catholic Nun Betta will hope to play spoiler and nab some important points in the bid calculator.
- #12 Wellesley Whiptails are in the Garden State field alongside #21 Rochester EZ Women.
- #23 Claremont Greenshirts will host Occidental WAC and others at the Claremont Classic.
- #6 Middlebury Pranksters, Brandeis Banshee, Dartmouth Daybreak, and Amherst Sparkle Motion are all playing at Bam Bam Bonanza!
- Oberlin Preying Manti and #25 Kenyon Blu-Ray will take the fields at Huckleberry Flick.
D-III Men’s Division
Add One to Oklahoma Christian’s Trophy Cabinet
D-III teams won every pool and #2 Oklahoma Christian Eagles won the title at Dust Bowl. OC looked every bit like the title contender they were expected to be in their debut tournament, though they needed universe point wins in the semifinal (over North Texas) and final (over #20 Missouri S&T Miner Threat). Weather clearly affected the games given the low scores all around. Across 49 pool play and bracket games, just 11 saw a team hit the point cap of 13.
Grinnell Grinnellephants and John Brown Ironfist were the other pool winners. Grinnell made it all the way to the semifinal, though John Brown was upset in quarters by North Texas.
Around the Division
- The wonderfully named Dickinson Dumptrucks won Bring the Huckus.
- Trinity Turbulence were the lone D-III team in attendance at Mardi Gras. They picked up some wins over Ole Miss and Georgia Southern and lost close to Arkansas, but ultimately fell to 12th.
Looking Ahead
The biggest event on the horizon is the D-III River City Showdown in Richmond. #9 Richmond Spidermonkeys are hosting. They’ll play alongside fifteen other teams in the spiritual successor to the famed FCS D-III Tune Up, which is sadly no longer running. Other ranked teams in attendance include #5 Carleton CHOP, #6 Franciscian Fatal, #10 Elon BFB, #16 Rochester Piggies, #17 Oberlin Flying Horsecows, #18 Davidson DUFF, #23 Michigan Tech DiscoTech, and #24 Puget Sound Postmen.
Not to be outdone, plenty of other D-III teams are in action elsewhere.
- Northeast powerhouses #3 Middlebury Pranksters, #4 Williams WUFO, and #21 Wesleyan Nietzsch Factor all RSVP’d yes to the UMass Invite.
- Defending champion #15 St Olaf Berzerkers, #14 Macalester Flat Earth, St. John’s Minnesota BAM and Knox River Rats are joining a bunch of D-I teams at Midwest Throwdown.
- SUNY-Cortland Team Rocket hope to blast off as the lone D-III team at Oak Creek Challenge.
- Bowdoin Clown, Swarthmore Earthworms, Army, Stevens Tech, Connecticut College Deimos and Haverford Big Donkey Ultimate will travel to the Garden State for Garden State.
- Butler Big Dog top a D-III pool with Penn State-Behrend JustDisc League and Denison at Huckin’ in the Hills.
- Snow Melt brings #7 Lewis & Clark Bacchus, #12 Colorado College Wasabi, and #25 Colorado School of Mines Entropy together in Colorado Springs.
- And finally, Whitworth Bangarang, Reed Hoot, Pacific Lutheran Reign, and Seattle Throbots will be at PLU BBQ.
