Franciscan prevailed over a deep tournament field that provided all the staples of classic D-III ultimate
March 3, 2025 by Calvin Ciorba in Recap
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The first-ever D-III River City Showdown delivered everything you’d expect from a major early-season test—dominant favorites, bracket-shaking upsets, and a Cinderella run for the ages. Hosted in Richmond, VA as the successor to the FCS D-III Tuneup, this tournament was stacked with Nationals-caliber squads, including hosts and 2024 semifinalists #9 Richmond Spidermonkeys, and 2024 Nationals attendees #5 Carleton CHOP, #6 Franciscan Fatal, #16 Rochester Piggies, and #17 Oberlin Flying Horsecows. While Saturday followed the script, Sunday descended into the type of chaos that makes D-III ultimate so special. Let’s break it down.
Pool Play Powerhouses
By all accounts, pool play played fairly chalky. Every top seed in their pool dominated, with Carleton and #10 Elon Big Fat Bomb posting a +29 and a +26 point differential, respectively. Carleton’s Nathan Wang steered the CHOP offense with the patience of a seasoned veteran, methodically working the disc upfield and never forcing a look. For Elon, freshman Brayden Morrison is living up to the hype, while Reed Burkert continues to shine.
Besides an odd first universe game with Kenyon, Franciscan quickly cleaned it up, winning big in their next two games. Jude Schmiesing looked every bit an early POTY frontrunner, cutting through defenses like a hot knife through butter and routinely linking up with Matthew Gregor for easy goals.
Richmond handily beat regional rivals #19 Davidson DUFF in a Friday night showcase matchup, as well as a weaker Messiah and #25 Puget Sound Postmen squad. The O-line handling pair of Clay Rosselot and Eric Harnisher were able to move the disc around the field quickly, while their D-line headlined by Calvin Ciorba and Rowan Keller stifled offenses and often punched in their breaks quick.
Quarters Galore
Everything that seemed normal about Saturday immediately changed on Fields 20A and 20B. It seemed smooth sailing for Richmond, as they took half on Rochester 7-5, and soon made the score 9-6. One break turned into two. Then three. Suddenly, the Spidermonkeys’ smooth offense unraveled, and Rochester stormed to a stunning 13-9 comeback, sealing one of the biggest upsets of the weekend. Cameron Lowe and Mitch Whisner can take most of the credit for their huge upset, as they completely shut down Richmond’s cutters in the second half and played fantastic offense after the turn. In the fourth year in a row of the two teams’ battles, Rochester finally won the UR Championship.
Meanwhile, the next field over CHOP and UNC Asheville Mudpuppy played a barnburner of a game, with no team ever leading by more than two points. CHOP’s offense looked smooth and effortless—until UNCA’s height and speed started to take over. The tournament 16 seed looked every bit the part of a Nationals team (despite their weird 13-3 loss to Franciscan the day before), led strongly by freshman Ethan Rhodes, former captain of YCC Charlotte Flight. Other standouts included Jackson Stanley and Brandon Bass. Mudpuppy punched, counterpunched, and finally landed the knockout blow on CHOP in an 11-9 stunner, a fantastic result for a team that has not made Nationals since 2017.
Fatal Finale in the Mud
After the wild quarterfinal upsets, the two underdogs in Rochester and UNC Asheville themselves played in a close semifinal. David Leder for Rochester was a monster in the handler space, beating every matchup using his speed and frame to box out defenders. It still wasn’t enough, as Mudpuppy again scored a big upset on universe point to reach the final.
Franciscan and Elon meanwhile played on the other side of the semis in what could be called a “faux final.” Fatal’s small ball movement shredded Elon’s lanky defenders, leading to often easy scores. Still, Elon managed a narrow lead up until the last second. BFB had a chance to make it 10-8, but an endzone turnover resulted in a Franciscan hold, leading to another universe point game. A dropped under from Elon on their own line resulted in an easy score for Fatal, pushing to the finals with a 10-9 win. Despite Elon’s fantastic weekend, their semifinal—and particularly the last two postseasons—still raises questions about how the team will deal with pressure later in the season. At the end of the day, however, Elon appears to be in every shape and form as the Regional favorite and has a very good shot at their first Nationals since 2015.
By the time the final rolled around, Franciscan could smell blood in the water. Mudpuppy looked exhausted after their morning upsets, and Fatal quickly dismantled UNCA’s Cinderella’s story, making sure no fairy tale ending occurred. Fatal ultimately won 13-10, giving up most of their scores in garbage time. UNCA had nothing to hang their heads over, however, after reaching the final as the very bottom seed in the tournament. Currently, the recently updated frisbee-rankings.com shows UNCA in bid-earning range as well–huge for a team that would not enjoy needing to defeat Elon and Richmond at Regionals.
Meanwhile, Franciscan proves they are very much a semifinal favorite.1 Watch out for them as early D-III Easterns favorites at the end of the month.
Quick Hits
- It was a tough weekend for teams who traveled large distances. Puget Sound’s Nathan Ludington and Sahaj Olivar looked fantastic, but their small roster didn’t provide enough depth to defeat any ranked teams. A win against Davidson demonstrates they have enough talent to possibly upset Lewis & Clark or Whitman at Regionals this year.
- #23 Michigan Tech DiscoTech looked like a team that just defrosted from a long winter, finishing last in their pool but salvaging the weekend with a couple of wins in consolation.
- Oberlin had a good weekend, bad 13-6 loss to Carleton in pool play aside. They managed to defeat a low-energy Richmond team in the 5th-place semis and Puget Sound in the crossover. Ben Fuguet still is a baller but lacks a handler core to help him out. Sebastien Kline provides some relief as one of the fastest cutters in the division. They will need a huge weekend at Davenport in two weeks if they want any chance at a bid.
- Davidson didn’t pass the results or eye test, a surprise after graduating few of the players who brought Richmond to universe in the regional final last year. With a deep Atlantic Coast this year, Davidson has time to figure it out, especially if the region actually earns three bids. Trust Coach Ken Porter and star Wes Smail to turn it around by Regionals.
- CHOP defeated Richmond in a 5th-place crossover on universe, demonstrating these are still two highly skilled teams with potential for bracket runs at Nationals again. Despite Richmond’s 0-3 Sunday, they are still within bid contention if they play well at D-III Easterns.
- Air Force Afterburn defeated Navy Poseidon 11-10 for the first time since the Alan Villeneuve era in 2019.
Despite only five Ultiworld Discord members picking them to win the tourney, compared to CHOP’s 17 and Elon’s 15. ↩
