A look at every team and every pool at Nationals!
October 16, 2025 by Edward Stephens and Josh Katz in Preview
Ultiworld’s coverage of the 2025 Club National Championships 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.
Event Page — Competition Schedule — Streaming Schedule
The ever-shifting landscape of the Mixed Division features a group of teams with a wide variety of storylines: established power programs trying to add to their legacy, the reigning champs looking for a back-to-back, newer teams hoping to make their names known, and everything in between. In a division famous for its surprises, there are plenty of teams with the potential to bust brackets.
Pool A
Ann Arbor Hybrid
Pool Seeding: A1
Power Ranking: #1
Regional Finish: GL1
Overall 2025 Record: 22-2
Against the Nationals Field: 14-1
Against the Pool: 1-0 vs. Rally, 2-0 vs. Sprocket, 1-0 vs. Mixtape
There hasn’t been a repeat winner at the USAU Club Championships since 2018-2019, when Philadelphia AMP went back-to-back. Arguably, no one has entered Nationals since then with a better chance to end that streak than this year’s iteration of Hybrid, who overwhelmed their opponents en route to title number one last October and, save for a couple slip-ups at PEC East in June, have been even more dominant this time around. They qualified for Nationals without much fuss, never giving up more than seven goals in a resounding performance at Great Lakes Regionals.
Honestly, it might be easier to list off the players on Hybrid’s roster who aren’t the key names to watch. Nathan Champoux is the reigning Mixed DPotY, PotTY runner-up, and a consensus top five player in the division. Rachel Mast might be the current frontrunner for POTY this year as an unstoppable offensive machine. Aaron Bartlett, last year’s Mixed OPotY, reprises his role as a hybrid for the offense, equally comfortable cutting and handling. Maketa Mattimore, like Mast, has elevated her game to an All-Club level this year, and probably deserves more recognition for doing so. Dalton Smith could probably win an OPotY award if he wasn’t stuck leading Hybrid’s defense on a turn.1 There’s also Laura Gerencser. And Sara Nitz, Jon Mast, Abe Coffin, Mark Whitton, Lily Hobday, Kat McGuire, and Maddy Simko. On this roster, is there anyone who isn’t incredible?
It’s Nationals, and it’s the Mixed Division at Nationals, so you never want to say anything is a certainty. And yet, based on what we’ve seen over the last three and a half months, it’s hard to envision anyone other than Hybrid hoisting the trophy Sunday night. At a minimum, we’ll certainly be seeing Hybrid when the tournament moves to the stadium at Canyon Crest Academy on Saturday.
Likely Ceiling: National Championship
Likely Floor: Semis
Washington DC Rally
Pool Seeding: A2
Power Ranking: #13
Regional Finish: MA1
Overall 2025 Record: 12-9
Against the Nationals Field: 5-8
Against the Pool: 0-1 vs. Hybrid, 0-2 vs. Sprocket
Will the real DC Rally please stand up? The club season has been going on for nearly five months, and it’s still impossible to nail down what kind of team Rally are. At times, they’ve looked the part of a top five team (see wins over Slow, shame. to start US Open, and Disco Club, and their first half against Toro). At others, they’ve barely looked Nationals-caliber (in blowout defeats to Seattle BFG, Sprocket, and shame. at US Open, and the second half against Toro). Even qualifying for Nationals wasn’t without drama: Rally needed universe point to win their regional semifinal against Baltimore Anthem before defeating AMP in the Mid-Atlantic final.
Rally are the only top eight seed to not have a player mentioned in our Top 25 Player Rankings, a fact they’re well aware of. But they use that slight as motivation, and the team thrives on the depth of their roster and being the hardest-working, most-spirited team in the division. They do have plenty of championship equity from the semi-pro world, with six members of the 2025 PUL Champions, DC Shadow, on the roster, including Ellen Mueller, Emily Kiver, and Sami Smalling, plus some coaching carryover on the roster and on the sideline. That experience could be quite valuable in close games, especially in the bracket.
Truly anything is on the table for Rally this weekend, and their wide range of likely outcomes reflects that. At the very least, they need to come out ready to play on Thursday morning against a Mixtape team with nothing to lose. But if Good Rally can stick around for the whole weekend, it’s easy to envision them going further than any of their previous iterations, perhaps as far as a stadium game.
Likely Ceiling: Semis
Likely Floor: Out on Day One
Boston Sprocket
Pool Seeding: A3
Power Ranking: #8
Regional Finish: NE2
Overall 2025 Record: 17-14
Against the Nationals Field: 5-11
Against the Pool: 0-2 vs. Hybrid, 2-0 vs. Rally, 1-0 vs. Mixtape
Putting together a fitting encore to last year’s run to the final was always going to be a difficult task for Sprocket, especially after superstar Liv Player moved over to Brute Squad in the Women’s Division. They managed well enough at their first two tournaments and seemed to be well on course for a strength bid, until Tannor Johnson-Go missed Pro Champs. Down in Virginia Beach, Sprocket went just 1-5, suffering a sequence of blowout losses that threatened to pull them all the way out of the bid picture. When the dust settled on the regular season, Sprocket had just barely avoided disaster and maintained their third bid for the Northeast. At Regionals, they proved they didn’t even need it, falling only to XIST and taking second place in Devens.
Scouting Sprocket isn’t much of a secret: Tannor Johnson-Go is the center of everything they do on offense. If he’s playing well, Sprocket are playing well. Zach Singer and Tess Johnson are both excellent complementary pieces in the backfield, but asking the pair to carry a line (as they were tasked at Pro Champs) will lead to some less-that-stellar performances. Wilhelmina Graff leads a stout defense, supported by a hodgepodge of athletes in Philip Joyce, Katya Piskun, Devin Quinn, and plenty others.
It’s pretty evident that Pro Champs was merely a speed bump for Sprocket, and last year’s finalists seem to be rounding into form at exactly the right time. Having Hybrid atop the pool makes winning Pool A an especially tall task, but Sprocket are capable of pulling off that upset, or taking down a different pool winner in the bracket.
Likely Ceiling: Finalist
Likely Floor: Prequarters
Seattle Mixtape
Pool Seeding: A4
Power Ranking: #12
Regional Finish: NW1
Overall 2025 Record: 9-12
Against the Nationals Field: 1-9
Against the Pool: 0-1 vs. Hybrid, 0-1 vs. Sprocket
Against all odds, Seattle Mixtape have made it back to Nationals for an eleventh straight season. The offseason departures of Khalif El-Salaam and Lexi Garrity dominated their storyline for much of the season, with Mixtape languishing in the back half of our Power Rankings and struggling against Nationals-level competition. But whatever issues plagued them for the regular season were solved by the time Northwest Regionals came around, and Mixtape pulled off one of the greatest upsets of the season, shocking Seattle BFG with a universe point Callahan to take the Northwest’s lone Nationals bid.
Zeppelin Raunig, scorer of said legendary Callahan, has been Mixtape’s best player this year, stepping into El-Salaam’s hybrid-esque role with aplomb. Billy Katz is still a steady hand in their backfield, though his most frequent targets have evolved over the year. Expect to see lots of Rowan Lymp, Lucy Tanner, Aimie Kawai, and Mo Tilmo in that regard, attempting to wreak havoc in the cutter space. Ciona Antolin, Alexa Romersa, and David Shipway can all also be counted on to step up with a clutch moment or two.
Mixtape have never missed the bracket during their Nationals streak, but they’ve also never entered Nationals seeded this low. Their only win against the field, all season long, was a season-opening victory against the team seeded directly ahead of them, 15-7 over Lawless. And yet, they open play with a matchup against a notoriously inconsistent Rally squad.2 To keep that bracket-making streak alive, they’ll almost certainly have to win that matchup. Getting beyond there, though, would take another BFG-esque miracle.
Likely Ceiling: Prequarters
Likely Floor: Out on Day One
Pool B
New York XIST
Pool Seeding: B1
Power Ranking: #6
Regional Finish: NE1
Overall 2025 Record: 19-5
Against the Nationals Field: 10-4
Against the Pool: 0-0
For the fifth straight season, and the sixth time in seven years, New York XIST have qualified for Nationals. This time, they find themselves in an unfamiliar position: a top four seed, and all the expectation that comes with it. In those previous five Nationals appearances, XIST have always finished at their seed or above it. Continuing that streak, however, will require New York to go all the way to the final, a game they’ve come close to multiple times but have never played in.3
If there’s one reason to believe this is the year for XIST, it’s the play of Jolie Krebs. From the day she first carried SUNY-Binghamton to College Nationals, it was clear Krebs was destined for stardom. In 2025, she fully reached that form, becoming an unassailable offensive force and earning the number one spot on our Top 25 Player Rankings. But one player does not a team make, and XIST’s ranking is based as much on the rest of the talent around Krebs. There’s Sadie Jezierski, back on the East Coast after a couple years in Seattle and flashing her talent every chance she gets. Oliver Chartock is one of the most underrated goal scoring machines in the division. And Axel Agami Contreras holds a similar title for the defensive side of the ball.
As one of the two teams to defeat Hybrid this year, XIST know what it takes to beat the champions. But they can’t let themselves look too far ahead, because Pool B is full of teams more than capable of pulling an upset. Should they make it through unscathed, XIST are a worthy candidate to win the 2025 club title.
Likely Ceiling: National Championship
Likely Floor: Quarters
Austin Disco Club
Pool Seeding: B2
Power Ranking: #5
Regional Finish: SC2
Overall 2025 Record: 17-7
Against the Nationals Field: 8-7
Against the Pool: 1-1 vs. Mile High Trash
Two years in existence, and two Nationals appearances for Disco Club. Other than an up-and-down, 11th place finish at PEC, Disco Club have made the final of every tournament they’ve attended this year. They finished the job at ESC, taking down Toro on universe, but sandwiched that title with losses to Hybrid in the US Open final and to shame. at South Central Regionals.
It’s no secret that Disco Club disappointed last October, crashing out in prequarters after entering as the second overall seed. They’ve added a couple reinforcements this year, most notably in Lexi Zalk and Joel Clutton, but how far Disco Club will go in year two will largely depend on that same group of players that fell flat last year. That group is led by Joey Wylie, one of the toughest covers in the division and always ready to leap for a block. He and Clara Stewart are their main distributors, and they’ve got plenty of receivers to find downfield. Expect to hear the names Carley Garrett, Reese Bowman, Eric Brodbeck, Bennett Wachob, and Jaime Estes early and often.
Disco Club hung tight with Hybrid during their three meetings with the favorites this year, so winning a title isn’t out of the question. They’ll first have to get through a pool they mostly haven’t seen this year: they split lopsided decisions with Mile High Trash in their only games against one of their poolmates in 2025. But they did meet both XIST and Tower last year at Nationals. XIST eviscerated Disco Club in that fateful prequarterfinal, and Tower took Austin to universe in consolation. Improving on that XIST result in particular will be necessary if Disco Club are to reach their goals in 2025.
Likely Ceiling: National Championship
Likely Floor: Prequarters
Sacramento Tower
Pool Seeding: B3
Power Ranking: #7
Regional Finish: SW1
Overall 2025 Record: 17-4
Against the Nationals Field: 4-2
Against the Pool: 1-0 vs. Mile High Trash
Of the sixteen teams at Nationals, perhaps none had a more chaotic path to qualifying than Tower. They started the year with a series of close games at PEC West–most of them victories–to establish themselves firmly in bid-earning range. Then, they took the field at ESC without Robyn Fennig and Tyler Bacon, and chaos ensued. A 13-7 defeat at the hands of AMP was particularly damaging in the eyes of the algorithm, and Tower left Indianapolis just outside the bid picture. After more chaos at Pro Champs, Tower’s chances of re-earning a bid were alive again, but the final rankings had them just a fraction of a point away from a third bid for the Southwest. No matter, said Tower, who promptly went 4-0 to win Southwest Regionals outright.
Discussion of Tower’s roster has to start with Fennig, but is there anything left to say about her that isn’t already known? We’ll just say she’s a surefire HOFer and move on. Tom Doi and Ryan Takayama led the offense at ESC in her absence, and the duo performed… we’ll call it well enough. Getting Fennig and Bacon back on the line will raise the floor considerably. Jules Madigan scored goals early and often in Indiana; her finding the end zone with a similar frequency in San Diego would do wonders for Tower’s chances of winning a bracket game for the first time.
Tower’s first game of Nationals is a treat for viewers at home: a battle with XIST on our showcase stream that pits a former Club PotY (Fennig) against a former Callahan winner and potential future Club PotY (XIST’s Jolie Krebs). While that game may be the most exciting, Tower’s most important game of pool play is their final match against Mile High Trash, who likely have that game circled as their best chance of pulling off an upset to make the bracket. If Tower get out of pool play, don’t be surprised if they make it deep into the race for the championship.
Likely Ceiling: Semis
Likely Floor: Out on Day One
Denver Mile High Trash
Pool Seeding: B4
Power Ranking: #14
Regional Finish: SC3
Overall 2025 Record: 17-6
Against the Nationals Field: 3-6
Against the Pool: 1-1 vs. Austin Disco Club, 0-1 vs. Tower
Mile High Trash are one of two Nationals debutantes in the Mixed Division this year, though their path to getting here was much more traditional than the other debut club. After a couple years languishing around the upper middle of the South Central pecking order, their start to 2025 proved they now belonged in the division’s upper tier. Mile High Trash picked up a huge win over Disco Club and a smaller win over AMP at PEC East, another win over AMP at ESC, and rode those wins to a strength bid for the South Central, one they defended with ease at Regionals. This season has basically been a Greg-like rise from the endless middle to the bottom of the top.
Atop Denver’s roster are a pair of Mile High Trash originals in Abby Thorpe and Allysha Dixon. Those two, along with Ari Nelson (in their third year with MHT) did an excellent job setting Denver’s floor in the early years of the program, but the ceiling has been raised considerably with the addition of two former college stars in Riley Kirkman-Davis and Fiona Cashin. Kirkman-Davis, in particular, has added another dimension to the offense with his effortless cuts and precision throws, and Cashin’s defense has been tremendous.
Sadly for Denver, they’ve been drawn into what is probably the “Pool of Death” in the Mixed Division. Put them in any other pool, and you could probably talk yourself into multiple wins in pool play and a quarters appearance. You never want to say something is impossible in mixed, but with XIST, Disco Club, and Tower above Mile High Trash in Pool B, getting just one win will be quite the challenge.
Likely Ceiling: Prequarters
Likely Floor: Out on Day One
Pool C
Durham Toro
Pool Seeding: C1
Power Ranking: #2
Regional Finish: SE1
Overall 2025 Record: 20-4
Against the Nationals Field: 8-3
Against the Pool: 1-0 vs. Slow, 2-1 vs. Space Force
It’s hard to have a much better season than the one Toro just completed. They won PEC East, dropping their opener against Hybrid and running the table the rest of the way. They came second at ESC, falling on universe to Disco Club in the final (though they did lose a pool play game to Space Force). The Series thus far has been a breeze for Durham, who won their section in quick order and thrashed the competition at Regionals, never conceding more than eight goals in any match to win their first regional title since 2018.
Ask anyone on staff who Toro’s top player is, and you’ll probably get a different answer each time. There are the two Claires, Revere and Bidigare-Curtis, who joined the squad this year after some time with Raleigh Phoenix in the Women’s Division. Grayson Sanner is another player worth a mention as Toro’s top option on offense. Player Pierce has been excellent as a distributor. Caitlin Gross and Will Coffin have also had multiple timely contributions. And while he’s probably not in consideration for Toro’s best player, Brett Matzuka, a current HOF candidate in the Men’s Division, is certainly still capable of making an impact.
That loss to Space Force at ESC could give reason for concern heading into pool play, but it was in a relatively meaningless game (both teams had already guaranteed quarters berths) and Toro blew them out twice later on at Regionals, 15-8 and 15-7. Toro have made the bracket just once in their history, back at their first Nationals appearance in 2017. Barring catastrophe, they’re going to make a second bracket appearance this year, and perhaps go a lot further than that.
Likely Ceiling: National Championship
Likely Floor: Quarters
Boston Slow
Pool Seeding: C2
Power Ranking: #9
Regional Finish: NE3
Overall 2025 Record: 21-11
Against the Nationals Field: 8-8
Against the Pool: 0-1 vs. Toro, 1-0 vs. Space Force, 1-0 vs. Lawless
For the 20th consecutive season4, Boston Slow are heading to Club Nationals. Few teams will enter San Diego more tested than Slow, whose 16 games against fellow Nationals competition are tied for the most among anyone in the field. Those 16 games have also made it hard to pin down exactly what tier Slow belong in. Are they the team that beat XIST at PEC East, or the team that lost handily to Sprocket at Regionals? The answer probably lies somewhere in between, but we’ll have to wait until later in the bracket to find out for sure.
One thing is for sure with Slow: Yuge Xiao is a star. She’s played at a DPotY-caliber level all season, and will be instrumental to any break chances for the defense. As for the offense, the youth movement is well underway for Slow; 2025 college standouts Luca Harwood and Louis Douville Beaudoin will be key cogs in the unit, while Ben Sadok will lend his veteran presence to the cause. Olivia Hampton is another player who will feature heavily, especially in the red zone. Aiding Xiao on defense, among others, are Ryan Cardinal and Piers MacNaughton.
Slow have played each of their pool play opponents once this year, and those previous results went according to their seeds this weekend: big wins over Space Force and Lawless, and a close loss to Toro. Assuming Slow can repeat those victories, flipping the Toro result will be massive for their championship hopes. Win that game (and likely the pool), and Slow will be in quarters, with a game against the 2D/3A prequarter. Hold seed, however, and Slow will have a very difficult prequarter against (likely) the third place finisher in the Pool of Death. No pressure.
Likely Ceiling: Finalist
Likely Floor: Prequarters
Huntsville Space Force
Pool Seeding: C3
Power Ranking: #11
Regional Finish: SE2
Overall 2025 Record: 13-10
Against the Nationals Field: 6-9
Against the Pool: 1-2 vs. Toro, 0-1 vs. Slow
Rather humorously, Space Force are in the same exact spot they were this time last year: the third seed in Pool C. The path they took to get here, however, could not have been more different. Last year, Space Force went to just one TCT tournament, and used a bevy of blowouts over lesser opponents to earn a strength bid. In 2025, Space Force went only to TCT tournaments, and used that elevated strength of schedule to barely eke out a strength bid.
Even with last year’s early exit, Space Force were able to use the Nationals appearance to aid their offseason recruiting. They added a number of players from the other mixed team in town, Pyro, including returns to the Force Jon Sillivant, Michael Mobley, and Daniel Bekken, and picked up 2025 Chicago Machine practice player (and US Open hero) Jack Galle. They join a revamped roster that bled over two lines’ worth of players from last year’s edition, with their leading assist thrower (Eric Sjostrom) and leading goal scorer (Michael Volz) at Nationals departing. They do bring back Sara Mog, their second leading scorer last October, and have seen elevated contributions this year from Jeremiah Branson and Elijah Jaime, among others.
Will being more battle-tested this year lead to an improvement on last year’s pool play exit? That’s certainly the hope for Huntsville, who have been dealt a much more straightforward pool this year. Above them are a pair of potential championship contenders who will be heavy favorites over Space Force. Seeded fourth are a team that, until regionals, did not look at all Nationals caliber. Based on their draw, Space Force should make the bracket for the first time in three tries. Wins in the bracket, however, might be harder to find.
Likely Ceiling: Quarters
Likely Floor: Prequarters
Arizona Lawless
Pool Seeding: C4
Power Ranking: #16
Regional Finish: SW2
Overall 2025 Record: 9-10
Against the Nationals Field: 0-6
Against the Pool: 0-1 vs. Slow
Arizona Lawless might be the greatest proof we have that trying to learn anything from the regular season is a meaningless endeavor. Three straight years, they’ve finished outside bid-earning range.5 Three straight years, they’ve shown up to Southwest Regionals and taken a bid anyway, their latest thievery featuring a universe point win over Burrito in the final game-to-go of the season, after losing to that same Burrito squad 14-5 earlier in the weekend.
Travis Dunn is going to get the disc a lot for Lawless. I know it, you know, his matchup knows it, and none of it matters. When Dunn wants the ball, he gets the ball. He was their leading assist thrower last Nationals (in fact, he led the whole division) and tied for the team lead in goals. If the US Open is any indication, the game plan hasn’t changed much. He once again led the team and the division in assists. He was, however, a goal short of the team lead, which was a tie between second year Lawless player Kez Gesell and Lawless newcomer Brittany Stettmeier. Another addition, Kyle Rubin, tied with Dunn in goals and put up his own double digit assist performance. And their co-scoring leader from last year, Oliver Artus, and second place assist thrower, Marshall Crawford, return. Maybe Lawless will be more egalitarian this year?
Nothing about Lawless’ season indicates they should be a threat at Nationals. They won just one game in the regular season against a US based team, against Montana MOONDOG, and just three games overall. A 15-13 loss to Disco Club is the only time they’ve been within two of a fellow Nationals team. And it’s not as if they’ve been handed an easy draw to aid in their quest to make the bracket. Sure, they could pull off an upset. It’s just not particularly likely.
Likely Ceiling: Out on Day One
Likely Floor: Out on Day One
Pool D
Fort Collins shame.
Pool Seeding: D1
Power Ranking: #4
Regional Finish: SC1
Overall 2025 Record: 20-4
Against the Nationals Field: 5-3
Against the Pool: 0-1 vs. Drag’n Thrust
shame. are, against all odds for a team that started out as a frozen-daquiri-and-hard-seltzer social club, mixed division royalty at this point. They’ve got the 2023 title, of course. Beyond that, they’re one of only three teams to make the bracket every year since 20166. And, most crucially, it’s getting to the point where you feel like you can pencil them into the top of the charts before the season kicks off and know they won’t burn you with a lackluster season. Sure enough, they’ve turned in an inarguably upper Nationals-level summer that has all the earmarks of transitioning into an upper Nationals-level fall.
The foundation of their success is easy to explain: shame.’s talent retention and talent recruiting have remained top notch for years. Most of the best players from their 2023 championship fun are still on the team – stars like Jade McLaughlin and Matty Russell and Aubree Dietrich and Rory Veldman and Sarah Itoh – and the ones they have lost (Owen Westbrook, Dani Tran) have been backfilled with comparable contributors (Blaise Sevier, Conor Tabor). As a result, they’ll almost surely be in the mix (either making semis or, like last year, narrowly missing out) for meaningful Saturday play in San Diego.
The real question, then, is whether they are poised to challenge Hybrid or anyone else to take the title on Sunday. If you are not one of those who subscribe to the “Hybrid Can’t Lose” School of 2025 Mixed Analysis, then you at least have to lean yes based on what shame. have brought to the table so far. They have a win over one of the few teams seeded above them (XIST), and, having dodged the Pool of Death, ought to give them good position heading into the bracket, however they get there.
Where you would start to worry is if shame. finish more than two points short of Drag’n in their marquee pool play matchup. That’s because, when you look closely, shame.’s 20-4 record isn’t as ironclad as a championship contender would like. The win over XIST is great, but they’ve stumbled in other games against good teams (Drag’n, Disco Club, BFG), and, because they didn’t go to Pro Champs, the strength of their schedule wasn’t all that high. Could they be paper tigers?
Probably not. Probably they are as good as their history and their roster would lead you to believe. But there’s a little sliver of a doubt.
Likely Ceiling: National Championship
Likely Floor: Prequarters
Minneapolis Drag’n Thrust
Pool Seeding: D2
Power Ranking: #3
Regional Finish: NC1
Overall 2025 Record: 17-7
Against the Nationals Field: 9-7
Against the Pool: 1-0 vs. shame.
Another mixed division Blue Blood program, Drag’n Thrust, in comparison to shame., have both a messier record – seven losses is more than four – and more thorough battle testing in 2025. Which one is likely to weigh more in the quest to skip prequarters?
More to the point, what kind of a Drag’n season is 2025? Is it the kind, like the ones that comprised their five-year run last decade that included three consecutive titles or like last year’s trip to semis, that will see Drag’n lock horns with the top of the division? Or is it more like those more pedestrian top-12 seasons – see 2021 or 2023 – where they don’t end up playing for much more than a ticket to the US Open and Pro Champs next season?
The baseline “mere” bracket showing is what you feel like you can count on with program lifers Erica Baken, Marty Adams, Caleb Denecour, Jane Koch, Emma Piorier, Bryan Vohnoutka, and Dani Byers. As in, any team built around a core like that (imagine them as a line!) will always contend at a certain level. What can push them over the top are the players they have recruited around that center. To wit, the roster of second-year dragons includes some of the players they are counting on most to grab the baton and run the anchor leg. That group includes defensive playmaker and power hucker James Pollard, a determined Chagall Gelfand coming off of a fabulous college season, brothers Owen and Kyle Suelflow making a compelling case as the best sibling teammates in club, and do-it-all miracle worker Clare Frantz.
An extra year of chemistry and hunger from that unit ought to portend a big Drag’n year again… except that it doesn’t account for the considerable losses, especially on the defensive side. Few players anywhere in the division last year could get blocks like Sarah Meckstroth, Dylan DeClerck, and Audrey Parrott. Could newcomers Tristan Van De Moortele, Veronica Janzen, and Abigail Keuhn7 help to replace what the other three took with them? Odds are low that they can match that much production, even with a good weekend.
The season to date has been a grind full of ups and downs. It’s a kind of ambivalent history. They could fly, or they could simply float. Drag’n will do well to focus on their experience and their matchup with shame. to decide which of these Mt. Mixedmore clubs will make it to quarters with fresh legs.
Likely Ceiling: National Championship
Likely Floor: Prequarters
Philadelphia AMP
Pool Seeding: D3
Power Ranking: #15
Regional Finish: MA2
Overall 2025 Record: 13-6
Against the Nationals Field: 2-4
Against the Pool: 0-0
Is that a third member of the Mixed Division Tribunal Council? AMP, although they got knocked out of an 18th straight Nationals berth by Rally a year ago, have taken Aaliyah’s advice and gotten right back on the horse for another title in 2025. With stars like Linda Morse and Team USA alternate Lindsay McKenna to lead the charge, not to mention club mainstays like Rachel Alfano, Eric Nardelli, Jake Butrica, and Danielle Walsh, they’ve got enough of a group to start to spitshine the program’s sterling legacy for a new era.
What legacy, you ask? Sit back and listen as I tell you a tale of two consecutive pre-pandemic championships and a roster of the sport’s best athletes. AMP have been a forge for the stars. Michael and Henry Ing came through the program. So did Anna Thompson and Carolyn Normile. Nicky Spiva made a stop here mid-career, and Raha Mozaffari nearly didn’t play for anybody else. All of them are going to get serious Hall of Fame consideration. More recently, Adam and Sam Grossberg have also worn shorts emblazoned with the guzzling beast. For a decade you could count on seeing AMP at not only every major Triple Crown Tour event, but also in the bracket. Those are the kinds of heights they’re reaching for once again.
How far they get this year along that line likely bears on how well they perform in the future. With a buzzy men’s division team (Pacmen) and rapidly developing women’s team (Flight) looking like attractive options for some younger Philly-area players, AMP’s long-term health could be at stake. They did nab 2025 D-III finalists Erica Collin and Zoe Costanza from Haverford/Bryn Mawr Sneetches for this season. They’ll want them to stick around, though, to seed a new young core. Beating out upstarts Conspiracy on Thursday – likely with a bracket spot on the line – will be crucial to show any young person with eyes and ears that playing for AMP once again means getting big game opportunities.
Likely Ceiling: Quarters
Likely Floor: Out on Day One
Savannah Conspiracy
Pool Seeding: D4
Power Ranking: #19
Regional Finish: SE3
Overall 2025 Record: 21-6
Against the Nationals Field: 0-0
Against the Pool: 0-0
Forrest Gump once famously proclaimed, from a bus stop bench on a square in Savannah, Georgia, that according to his momma “Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.” How wise his words seem indeed when something completely surprising and delightful happens. Something like Conspiracy, the lemur-themed, Emergency Drinking Beer-drinking, second-year mixed outfit nominally based in Savannah (but actually more like a Southeast Region whisper network come to life) embarking on a legendary backdoor run to take down Charlotte Storm, Asheville Parliament, and Nashville ‘Shine in succession to become this season’s Cinderella story.
Should we have seen it coming? Well, no one could have quite scripted it the way it went down, after a middling postseason effort up until the start of Super Sunday. But the signs of Conspiracy’s talent were there, and we highlighted them as a team to watch in our power rankings before the start of the season – a short-lived honor, as they were quickly replaced by other teams, but one that proved to be prescient.
The truth, though, is you don’t have to be a genius to appreciate the talents of former D-III champion Nathan Vickroy, former Jojah aces John Langstaff and Matt Cook, former South Carolina lightning bolt Jamie Bryson – oh, that lost 2020 season and what might have been! – G-Unit and Tabby Rosa veteran Lisa Fitton… you get the idea. And you don’t have to be a conspiracy theorist to imagine that it took them a while (especially since by captain Kevin Harrow’s own admission they didn’t practice) to fall into lockstep with one another. Luckily, it happened just in time.
Can lightning strike twice? It can, at least on Thursday. They will be underdogs in all three of their games, and deservedly so. But they have the pieces to give AMP a run for their money and break through to prequarters. The sport’s vast population of dreamers – all of those players who figure that if they can just work hard enough for long enough and seize the right opportunity with a bunch of similar laid back tryhards – are all living vicariously through them and will be cheering them on.
Likely Ceiling: Prequarters
Likely Floor: Out on Day One
And maybe he should still win one anyways. ↩
Which you can watch on the Round 1 Field Pass ↩
The longest streak in the division, and the sixth longest in all of USAU Club ↩
And especially so this year. Lawless were 35th in the final regular season rankings. ↩
Drag’n Thrust and Mixtape are the other two, and they’ve kept up longer streaks, so shame. still have some way to go. ↩
Janzen and Keuhn are two reasons to be excited for the future of the University of Minnesota women’s team again ↩
