Florida Warm Up 2026: Day One Winners and Losers (Men’s Div.)

Who's off to a great -- or poor -- start to 2026?

January 31, 2026 by Josh Katz in Recap

Ultiworld’s coverage of the 2026 college ultimate season 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.

It’s hard to ask for a more perfect day of college ultimate as a fan than what day one at Florida Warm Up served up this year. The weather was pristine – mid 50s as the first pull went up and high 60s as the last games wound down, with little wind to speak of – and energy across the complex was exactly as raucous as you’d expect from hundreds of college kids who haven’t been outside for a week thanks to snow and frigid temperatures blanketing the eastern half of the US. The quality of ultimate, especially for late January, was surprisingly high. The standings after day one are important, yes, but this weekend is about laying the groundwork for a successful season ahead. Some teams did better at that task than others, leading us into a first edition of Winners and Losers for the 2026 season.

First up, the scores and standings after day one (teams are ranked first by record and then by algorithmic ranking, the top 8 teams after match play ends on Saturday, excluding BYU, make the quarterfinals):

Winners: Championship Contenders

#1 Carleton CUT and #4 UMass Zoodisc entered this season as national championship contenders and did nothing on day one to dispel that notion. CUT had the benefit of an easier schedule to open play, facing two unranked D-I teams and D-III’s Oklahoma Christian, and used that benefit to play through most of their roster. A lot of the familiar names were making plays: Declan Miller, Ryan duSaire, and Nathan De Morgan all had great moments. So too were some of their rookies: Aage Bonnell and Sarek Mallareddy in particular. The real tests for CUT come on day two, when they face #19 BYU CHI and #23 Tufts E-men.