The deepest high school tournament in the country!
June 12, 2025 by Charlie Eisenhood and Keith Raynor in Preview
It is here: the 2025 High School National Invite! 32 of the nation’s best high school teams arrive to Allentown, Pennsylvania, this week to battle for the most prestigious title in high school ultimate.
We’ve got you covered for all the exciting action this weekend. Follow along on the HSNI Event Page, and make sure to grab your Ultiworld subscription to watch the livestreams and get live on-the-ground updates from our reporting crew in the Ultiworld Discord.
Tournament Profile
- Location: Allentown, PA
- Dates: June 13-14, 2025
- Weather: Highs in the 70s; slight chance of rain Friday, rain likely on Saturday. Light winds.
- Top 25 Teams: 16 Boys, 16 Girls
- Tournament Schedule
- Ultiworld Live Page
Livestreaming Schedule
Ultiworld will be streaming 24 total games throughout pool play and the bracket, available for Ultiworld Standard and All-Access subscribers as well as those who purchase the HSNI Event Pack! This coverage includes all of the semifinals and finals on Saturday. All four semifinals will be streamed; one from each division will feature commentary.
See the full livestreaming schedule and how to watch information here.
Boys Division
It’s a fascinating year in the Boys Division, with multiple title threats, a handful of undefeated teams, some lower-seeded teams with serious (but inconsistent) firepower, and a possible rebalancing of regional strength incoming.
A team from the Western US has won the tournament in five straight years; only Catholic, a Louisiana program that hasn’t been in the national picture since 2020, has kept the West from sweeping every iteration of HSNI when they took down the inaugural championship in 2017. But this year, the top four teams in the power rankings — and the top four seeds at HSNI — are all from the East Coast: Virginia state champions and undefeated #1 Jackson-Reed, Pennsylvania state champions #2 JR Masterman (PA), Massachusetts state champions #3 Arlington, and Georgia state champions #4 Lakeside have all had very strong seasons and could end the West Coast (and, particularly, Utah) dominance.
Jackson-Reed has been sitting at #1 for months as they have piled up the wins. They throttle Lakeside and a very good RECA team early in the season, then took down the YULA Invite with a four-goal win over JR Masterman that only looks better in time. Perhaps a sign of how wild this year could get, though, is that their closest game of the season came against Wissahickon, the bottom seed at the tournament: a 12-11 nailbiter at Spring Fling. Jackson-Reed relies on a deep stable of experienced players and cut their teeth at the last two HSNIs, where they finished 11th in 2024 and 7th in 2023. Their lack of late-bracket experience could give some pause, but they have certainly put up the results this regular season. Captains Niko Epstein and Roger Beckel are the O-line and D-line leaders and they earned a more fortuitous path in the bracket by earning the #1 overall seed.
At full strength, JR Masterman has been far and away the best team in Pennsylvania, which sends three teams (Strath Haven, Wissahickon) to this year’s HSNI (and there were plenty of other strong teams behind those three). Their record from the season is a bit spotty because they were short-handed at some tournaments, and they only carry 17 players at full strength. But don’t be fooled: they could win the title. Ezra Beidler-Shenk is their star, initiating the offense and becoming their #1 defender when he crosses over. He was a high-volume O-line handler for the Philly SEPDA boys team that won the Youth Club Championships last August. Owen Erdman, also a key contributor to SEPDA, leads the D-line.
Arlington has only dropped a single game this season — in the finals of the Amherst Invite to Strath Haven, another strong Pennsylvania team. That stunner upset earned Strath Haven an autobid to HSNI and put some extra pressure on Arlington to show up at Pioneer Valley Invite. No worries. They dominated, including a 10-6 win over Lakeside. This team is scary athletic, largely pulling in varsity athletes from other sports at the school. Varsity soccer and basketball player Cam Levine is the big name (Team USA U20, D-line starter for Sprout), but look out for some other serious threats like track speedster Luke Hedlund and elite puller Malcolm Cooper, a disc golfer with power. The raw talent on this team could be the highest in the country, but will they have enough experience in big games to outduel the top teams?
The battle for Pool D will be one of the key stories to watch on Friday. Lakeside is ostensibly the favorite as the higher seed and they’ve been rock solid outside of that loss to Arlington, but lurking in the #5 seed are the defending champions, Green Canyon, out of Utah. The state of Utah has claimed the last three HSNI titles (Lone Peak won in ’23 and ’22), and GC has dominated high school competition this season, though they’ve played few top teams. Sophomore Blake Holt could be a generational talent: keep an eye on his play this weekend.
Further down the board are a pair of strong Tennessee teams, RECA and Independence; three Minnesota teams in an up year for the state, Edina, Open World Learning, and Washburn; two battle-tested Washington state teams, Roosevelt and Garfield; the aforementioned Pennsylvania teams; the North Carolina state champions East Chapel Hill; and the Spaghetti Western champions from California, Albany. It is entirely plausible that any of these teams could make the bracket — and even make a run.
The powerhouse youth scenes, particularly, have some contenders. Edina has a strong pedigree at HSNI and a top-tier player in Walter Hipps. OWL’s Danny Hobday is an early front-runner for All-Tournament team, and opposing squads will have to have an answer for him. The Seattle teams played their season all the way back in the fall, but they also send deep and talented teams to HSNI; Roosevelt’s Calvin Schnee and Manny Berson lead a balanced Roosevelt team that took down Seattle Invite, and Garfield, the WA state champs, are led by Aage Bonnell and Jude Small.
RECA and Independence have traded wins this season, but RECA has been the stronger of the pairing, convincingly taking down the state championships. They’ll hope to play spoiler to the more established ultimate scenes: both programs have been solid for years but it’s a clear up year in Tennessee. RECA’s Ben Price and Tobin Beichler will star for the O-line, and keep an eye on the Plewniak brothers. The fluid lines of Independence will be helmed by Dane Gore and Isaac Taylor.
East Chapel Hill’s Harrison Berg will look to lead the team to some upsets, and it will be exciting to see how tough Albany — led by captains Nick Rusa, Jonah Brochard, and Hugo Tsai — will be after a history of strong showings from California teams, including a Berkeley championship in 2019.
Girls Division
There are two pathways for this year’s Girls’ Division to go: another clash of titans between Roosevelt and South Eugene — or a surprise emergence of a new contender. With myriad challengers, ranging from familiar faces to national newcomers, both options offer plenty for fans.
For two straight seasons, Roosevelt (WA) and South Eugene have met in the High School National Invite final. South Eugene won both of those title bouts, making it a trio of first place trophies for the Oregon squad. Roosevelt, who has been to three straight semifinals, in addition to winning the tournament in 2019, enters as the top ranked team, led by Chloe Hakimi, ZsaZsa Gelfand, and Vivian Hakimi. Chloe, to this point, is perhaps the most well-known high school player in the history of ultimate, and she lives up to the hype: she’ll be taking the field for Team USA at the Under-24 World Championships later this month (as will Gelfand, younger sister of Carleton standout Chagall). South Eugene has their own stars, like Chloe’s future college teammate Helen Burruss, as well as Ziggy Fox. However, as both team’s histories show, they have developed a wealth of talent and skill that is far from reliant on just big names.
Roosevelt defeated South Eugene 13-6 at Seattle Invite and comes into HSNI undefeated as the big favorite, but betting against South Eugene at HSNI has been a losing proposition.
One of the top challengers isn’t from far away and also has a lot of experience at HSNI: no.3 Summit (OR). Their core has been developing over the years, anchored by two sets of siblings: the Melner triplets, Danika, Maya, and Taylor; and the Bodo siblings, Eila and Sylvia. Danika and Eila often drive action from the backfield, while Maya, Taylor, and Sylvia dominate downfield. They’ve beaten South Eugene twice this season, although they were handily taken down in the State Championship rematch.
There are a bevy of western teams with hopes of being the giant slayers. El Cerrito is having a banner year, winning a California state championship and reaching the Spaghetti Western final, where they lost 8-6 to Summit. Garfield reached the Washington state final, led by the dynamic Nor Luloff and impressive handling of Mira Schneeweiss-LaRene, and won’t be an easy out. Neither will fellow Seattle squads, Lincoln, who is somewhat shorthanded but has ace defender Lou Shernoff, and Nathan Hale, with Hazel Geiger and rising star Lily DiGioia in the fold. Provo is making their first trip to the tournament, hailing from the powerful Utah youth scene that will have prepared them well.
This will also be essentially the first chance to compare the west to the rest. Alexandria City, who had been fantastic all season until a surprise loss in the Virginia state final, will be looking to make a name for themselves, with Leo Dienstfrey and Norah Curry at the helm, each with quality club experience. Amherst won Massachusetts states and Amherst Invitational and have been on a tear coming into the tournament, leaning on a small roster with great athleticism and chemistry. Could they be a darkhorse title contender? Teams such as Jordan (NC) (U20 national teamers Caroline DeWolf and Elisa Hetland) , Washburn (MN) (Riley Gage, Kumari Okumura), and Strath Haven (MA) (U20 national teamer Katie Stack, explosive youngster Alice Rieger) all have big time players capable of powering the types of upsets they’ll need to overpower the western squads and break up the title rematch.
