D-III College Championships 2025: Pick ‘Em Challenge & #TheGame Results

The winners and the results from this year's D-III contests.

June 5, 2025 by Keith Raynor in Fantasy

With the 2025 USA Ultimate Division-III College Championships in the book, the Pick ‘Em Challenge (Charlie doesn’t want the smoke) and #TheGame are all wrapped up. We picked the winners, guessed the props, and tried to find the upsets and which favorites to target. Hopefully, following along was fun. We keep trying to improve the mechanics to make it as fun as possible!

#TheGame

 

Full Scoreboard

The Winners

Unchallenged atop the pile is the entry of JT Lucas with 279 points. JT nabbed one champion (Wesleyan W), one finalist (Middlebury M), and one semifinalist (Lewis & Clark W), plus super-value Bowdoin M and Rochester W, totaling 279 points. That’s three parts of the perfect lineup, a good start. But what really pushed this entry over the top was sweeping the bonus round for all 36 bonus points.

JT wins a free month of Standard subscription and an Ultiworld hat.

That’s what separated the champion from second place finisher, Tim Hebda. Tim had the same lineup but missed on the 11 pt. bonus by picking Richmond W or Hillsdale M, landing with 268.

It was a bit of a drop to 249 from Malachi Raymond. Malachi double-dipped with Middlebury, which paid well, while adding fellow New England squad Bowdoin M. The rest of the lineup was from the west, with Claremont M and Lewis & Clark W, obviously a strong sleeper. Those affordable picks earned Malachi the low-cost bonus (I really need a name for that, any ideas?), which broke a would-be tie for third. Malachi could have finished one point behind JT by sweeping the bonus questions, but only got the Middlebury M spread right (and how fitting).

Tim and Malachi each win a free month of Standard subscription.

Selection Stats

Top 5 Women’s Division Teams

1. Lewis & Clark (31.5%)
2. Middlebury (27.7%)
3. Richmond (27.7%)
4. Rochester (22.3%)
5. St. Olaf (20.8%)

We don’t usually get such a tight group in the top five, which are also the only five to go over 20%. I’m surprised Middlebury wasn’t the top, but I think the pricing rules drove those decisions. The top seeds were big favorites in Pick ‘Em, but selected much less frequently here, as everyone was saving up money for Davenport in the men’s division, so that’s evidence for my theory. This, however, was probably a mistake. As Charlie Eisenhood stated on Deep Look, the best #TheGame lineups almost always include the winning teams, and clearly people expected one of the top three to win in the women’s division.

Two of the three most popular picks (sorry Richmond) were some of the best values vs. expected points; Mount Holyoke was the only other team to beat their expected.

Top 5 Men’s Division Teams

1. Davenport (60%)
2. Wesleyan (43.1%)
3. Bowdoin (38.5%)
4. Richmond (25.4%)
5. Middlebury (20%)

Obviously, a lot of the money got wrongly tied up in Davenport, which isn’t necessarily a terrible value, but kept anybody from getting to most of the other semifinalist contenders, namely the money earner, Lewis & Clark. Carleton was at 10% and Middlebury was a key team. Wesleyan and Richmond both turned out to be landmines after some close losses. And they were right next door to Rochester, who outscored both.

The Perfect Lineup

Wesleyan W ($4)
Lewis & Clark M ($4)
Lewis & Clark W ($2)
Bowdoin M ($1)
Claremont M ($1)

An entrant could garner 275 points with this group, which includes the 7.7%-selected Clairmont Brains and 6.2% selected Lewis & Clark Bacchus. 11.5% selected Wesleyan Vicious Circles were the next lowest of this set. With the extra 36 bonus points, 311 was the maximum score.

The Bonuses

A lot of bonus points on the board this time. Nice job, team!

Which pot 4 team will score the most points in pool play? (11 Pts)

This was a new experiment, giving the little 2-for-1 picks. Hope people had fun balancing their choice. Bowdoin was the big winner, putting up 39. They were the second most popular choice with 30.8% of the selections; Puget Sound W or Berry M led the clubhouse with 34.6%.

What will be the result of the pool play game between Carleton W and Middlebury? (9 pts)

Carleton’s disappointing showing really affected things, including here, where their favorite status lead to them winning (either by 3 or more or by 1 or 2) capturing 79% of the picks. And Middlebury rolled.

What will be the result of the pool play game between Lewis & Clark M and Middlebury M? (9 pts)

It says “pool play game!” Wild ride, Nationals was. 2/3s of the entrants went with Middlebury covering the spread and they did that and then some.

How many different schools will have teams in the the quarterfinals? (7 pts)

11 or 12 was by far the most popular choice with 59% of entrants; second was 13 or 14 at 26%, a big difference. And that was the right answer. Maybe I should have separated 11 and 12.

 

Pick ‘Em Challenge

 

Full Scoreboard

Women’s Division

The picks for the final rounds of the division really concentrated around the top three: Wesleyan, Carleton, and Haverford/Bryn Mawr, in that order, ate up 85% of the champion picks and 81% of the finalist picks. Obviously, the Eclipse contingent paid a hefty price. Did anyone see Lewis & Clark coming? A prescient four entrants picked the underdog to make a run to semifinals.

As for quarterfinals, along with Lewis & Clark (36.1%), Mount Holyoke (16.7%) was the big surprise.

The Most Popular Picks

• Quarterfinals
  1. #3 Carleton (100%)
  2. #1 Wesleyan (99.1%)
  3. #2 Haverford/Bryn Mawr (96.3%)
  4. #6 Middlebury (92.6%)
  5. #4 Whitman (91.7%)
  6. #7 St. Olaf (74.1%)
  7. #8 Davenport (63.9%)
  8. #5 Kenyon (59.3%)
• Semifinals
  1. #1 Wesleyan (91.7%)
  2. #3 Carleton (84.3%)
  3. #2 Haverford/Bryn Mawr (81.5%)
  4. #6 Middlebury (49.1%)
• Final
  1. #1 Wesleyan (65.7%)
  2. #2 Haverford/Bryn Mawr (49.1%)
• Champion
  1. #1 Wesleyan (32.4%)

Men’s Division

Lest we already forget all of the Davenport hype, they were absolutely towering favorites at level. No other team even had a 10% selection rate as a champion, though it is curious that eventual champion Lewis & Clark (9.3%) was the second most selected team.

The other problem was a glut of the rest of the top five seeds all pretty well distributing interest every else: that group ranged from Elon’s 24.1% to Middlebury’s 14.8% in the final. But that did mean that when three of the top four most popular picks to reach semis fell off, there were plenty of entries on the next couple of teams to pick up the points.

So how much were people picking the right underdogs? A reasonable 16.7% of entries had CHOP reaching the semifinal. Meanwhile, Bowdoin had a meager 13.9% selection rate to reach quarterfinals, less than full percentage point behind Rochester (14.8%).

The Most Popular Picks

• Quarterfinals
  1. #1 Davenport (100%)
  2. #2 Elon (96.3%)
  3. #5 Middlebury (92.6%)
  4. #3 Whitman (90.7%)
  5. #4 Lewis & Clark (83.3%)
  6. #6 Oklahoma Christian (83.3%)
  7. #7 Carleton (69.4%)
  8. #9 Wesleyan (58.3)
• Semifinals
  1. #1 Davenport (98.1%)
  2. #2 Elon (61.1%)
  3. #5 Middlebury (60.2%)
  4. #3 Whitman (48.1%)
• Final
  1. #1 Davenport (85.2%)
  2. #2 Elon (24.1%)
• Champion
  1. #1 Davenport (70.4%)

Fantasy

Women's Div. Goals Leaders	Goals	Women's Div. Assist Leaders	Assists	Men's Div. Goals Leaders	Goals	Men's Div. Assist Leaders	Assists
Lucy VanNewkirk	21	Ella Widmyer	27	Cole Fairfield	29	Jacob Felton	29
Zoe Costanza	18	Scout Noble	24	Max Zwerin	23	Samuel Roberts	29
Katelyn Osborne	15	Lanie O'Neill	23	Leo Farley	20	Jude Schmiesing	25
Claire Willett	15	Tay Harvey	20	Cameron Lowe	18	David Leder	24
Kaley Johnson	13	Zoe Costanza	19	Daniel Glickman	17	Daniel Glickman	23
Rufus Helmreich	12	Will Johnson	18	David Leder	17	Zachary Widmyer	23
Eliza Williams-Derry	12	Charlotte Moynihan	18	Rowan Jamieson	16	Cameron Lowe	22
Sofia Canoutas-Nadel	11	Jocelyn Richison	17	Oscar de Swaan Arons	14	Zachary Sanders	22
Anna Forbes	11	MollieKay Grubbs	16	Wesley Fransen	14	Jack Noble	21
Natalie Sweet	11	Clara Morton	16	Gregory Moreno	14	Ian VanOrder	21
						Nathan Wang	21

Many fantasy points were had, with over 2 points per entry. Much of that came from the assist categories. In the women’s division, Lanie O’Neill was the third most popular pick (behind Zoe Costanza and Natalie Sweet) and landed in the top three. Costanza earned top 10. In the men’s division, almost 40% of the picks went to Jacob Felton, who tied for the assist lead.

Costanza was also by far the most popular goal-scoring pick and finished second in that category, another common source of fantasy points.

The Winners

Our leading scorers were Amir and Max Resnik, who tied with 28 points. Amir had both champions, as well as CHOP in the semifinals. Max actually had fewer points in both division’s than Amir, but crushed in Fantasy, one of only two entrants to get 8 fantasy points. That means all four of Zoe Costanza, Scout Noble, Max Zwerin, and Jacob Felton finished top three in their respective categories and divisions.

Unfortunately only one can win the grand prize, so by virtue of random draw, Max Resnik  wins a free month of Standard subscription and an Ultiworld Hat. Amir wins the second place prize, a free month of Standard subscription.

Four players tied for third with 27 points: Jesse Levisohn, Sam Felton, Tolfa, and Jonas Kra-Caskey. All four earned 5 or more fantasy points, including Tolfa with the other 8-point score. But like the top prize, they must be tie-broken. Sam Felton wins the third place prize, a free month of Standard subscription.

Feedback Welcome!

Did you play? Did you not play? Why or why not? What rules would be fun to play with? What tweaks can be made?

This is perhaps the most satisfied I’ve been with outcomes here from a game-design standpoint. But I’m always open to new ideas!

We want the Pick ‘Em Challenge and #TheGame to be fun and have different strategies be viable without being too complicated for lots of people to enter. You can contact me by emailing [email protected].