Hybrid electrify Pro Champs to take home the second leg of the triple crown
September 3, 2025 by Alex Rubin in Recap
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VIRGINIA BEACH—With a 15-9 win over #6 Boston Slow, #1 Ann Arbor Hybrid won Pro Champs for the first time in program history. Paired with their US Open win, Hybrid is one leg away (a win at the USA Ultimate Club Championships in October) from a Triple Crown.
If the outcome of this game was ever in doubt, it was right at the beginning. Just like they did against #5 Seattle BFG in the semifinal and during pool play, Slow started with an upwind break. Ryan Cardinal, Yuge Xiao, and Tyler Chan kept the disc moving while attacking upwind just as they have all weekend. Many teams struggled to generate consistent offense upwind, but Cardinal’s power, Xiao’s timing, and Chan’s speed elevated Slow’s upwind offense every time they were on the field that direction.
Hybrid may have been down but they never blinked. With unwavering confidence and waves of defenders to challenge opponents, Hybrid began grinding away. The Hybrid D-line earned a break chance on nearly every point they played, and they worked together to generate positive offensive opportunities on every possession.
The Hybrid D-line locked in from the get go of each point. “We have a couple people who are very serious about pulling,” Charlie Vukovic said. “I think that’s kind of an underrated thing in the mixed division especially…We had a lot of people who were keyed in on that and practiced that a lot to make sure we were setting up our possessions well.” Vukovic is one of those pullers, but Tracey Lo, Chase Cunningham, and Courtney Walbe each had standout pulls as well.
While Slow may blame themselves for some untimely drops, the defensive pressure Hybrid can bring is unlike anything else the division can offer. Hybrid have defenders to match up against every archetype: tall, fast, quick, or smart. 2024 Defensive Player of the Year Nathan Champoux will get a lot of the attention, but the work that players like Annalise Meilink, Ian McNamara, Lili Hobday, and Jesse Johnson put in are just as detrimental to opponents’ offenses.
And as automatic as Cardinal, Xiao, and Chan can seem, Dalton Smith offers the same execution nearly by himself on the counterattack. Smith’s weaving through the defense for an upwind break is one of those outcomes that just happens even though the defense knows it’s coming. Opponents are helpless to stop it. Smith has had the book of defensive looks thrown at him for so long that at this point nothing can phase the Hybrid captain.
By the time halftime came, Hybrid had not only regained their lead, but extended it to three points. The only way they would lose was by giving the game away — an outcome not outrageous to consider in the mixed division, but far from a reality this Hybrid team should expect.
Hybrid’s offense was particularly careful to secure hold moving downwind. “A lot of our pull plays were getting momentum to the high side of the field,” said O-line cutter Maketa Mattimore. “Trying to fight the urge to just shoot the easy huck downfield and just be patient and work it and trust our receivers and trust our players to get open.”
Hybrid did complete their fair share of huck looks, but Rachel Mast, Aaron Bartlett, and Abe Coffin worked together downfield to generate big-window throwing opportunities to opportunistic spaces. Catching a breakside under might not be the most glamorous thing to do, but Hybrid’s ability to stay focused and energized through stiff wind and challenging defense left Boston without a shred of hope for a comeback.
In the second half, Hybrid poured on the pressure, clamping down on the backfield resets that Slow had relied upon earlier in the weekend. On Slow’s side, they were playing without three major O-line contributors. Louis Douville Beaudoin sat out this tournament with an injury, while Ben Sadok and Josh Markette were not even at the field site on Monday.1 With the opportunity to step up, young players like Luca Harwood and Owen Cordes both had good weekends. Second-year Slow handler Jaelee Cruz and Slow rookie Ellie Jose each also made their fair share of standout plays in a backfield. Their collective poise was especially notable on upwind bounceback points after the O-line got broken.
Slow surely will feel confident about their own chances after this weekend. Upset wins in the bracket are always a good sign, but to do so while missing some talented players has to feel even better. While the rest of the division watched Sprocket’s results with bated breath to figure out whether the Northeast region would earn an additional strength bid, Slow might not need to worry about their own placement given their results this weekend.
In their upsets over #5 Seattle BFG and #4 Minneapolis Drag’n Thrust, Slow were the better team moving upwind. Against Hybrid, though, they struggled to find good looks and were facing a team with a lot of confident wind throwers.
“It was fun to play in the wind,” said Hybrid’s Mark Whitton. “I think that we were pretty mentally resilient throughout it all… This is Midwest frisbee, we’re pretty used to this stuff.”
“I can speak for our whole D-line when I said we love the wind,” Charlie Vukovic added. “We’d rather play in this wind than a completely still game. I think we thrive on it.”
From here, Hybrid enter the series as the clear favorites to win another Championship. They have nothing left to prove having passed every test this season had to offer so far. Nationals is a different beast than regular season tournaments, but Hybrid have given no indication that they should have reason to worry.
No team has won USA Ultimate’s Triple Crown since New York PoNY in 2018. The last mixed team to do so was Seattle Mixtape in 2017. With the first two legs already secure, Hybrid can cement themselves among the best teams in the history of the division with a title in October.2 Not only that, but Hybrid also have an excellent chance to be the first team in any division to win back-to-back titles since the 2018-19 Philadelphia AMP teams. It would be foolish to get ahead of ourselves and anoint Hybrid just yet… but it would also be wrong not to think about it given the dominance with which they’ve won so far this season.
