A jumble of wins and losses indicate this D-III season could be hard to pin down.
February 17, 2026 by Graham Gordon in Recap
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While D3 Grand Prix lacks the traditional tournament bracket to crown a winner, the results were clear by the event’s end. But, in the spirit of a chaotic table, even the best result mustered was 6-1. It was that sort of weekend and it leaves as many questions as answers. It definitely sets the table for an exciting and unpredictable D-III season to come.
Champions in Control
Amidst convoluted results from the weekend, one thing is clear—#4 Lewis & Clark Bacchus are still among the class of the division. It was easy to think that losing their two All-American First-Team stars in Max Zwerin and Leo Farley in addition to three O-Line role players (Topher Olson, Jonas Bray, Ben Eichel) would reduce them to maybe a quarters-level squad. Clearly, that is not the case. Aside from the one loss on universe point to a plucky #15 Colorado College Wasabi team, Bacchus’ results were inspiring all weekend and it’s pretty impossible to argue that any other team played better at Grand Prix. They left no doubts during a 13-7 takedown of #2 Carleton CHOP, dispelled #7 Whitman Sweets and #25 Colorado Mines Entropy to similar scores, and managed to hold off strong challenges from #9 Claremont Braineaters and #16 Macalester Flat Earth.
The Bacchus offense is spearheaded by do-everything stud Orlando Impas and center handler Sam London, who has taken to his increased role swimmingly, driving the ship with an incredibly sharp around backhand and extremely solid decision-making. They are supported by new additions to the set in Finn Sporrer, Jedediah Friendly, and Aiden Jacobs, who all slotted well into supporting roles as continuation cutters and bailout options. On the other side of the ball, Charlie Wagner has also taken another step up in terms of on-field leadership and throwing prowess, and Levi Stahl can sky practically anyone in the division. Bacchus’s coaching staff, led by Ben Whitenack since 2022, has clearly done very well to create continuity of system and discipline even with large roster turnover and many new faces.
The Circle(s) of Suck
As might be expected, especially in the early season for D-III, teams were clearly still working out the kinks in their offensive systems on Saturday in Portland. Iffy deep shots, miscommunications in the reset space, and discomfort dealing with defensive junk or zone looks led to plenty of high-turnover points, which always lead to inconsistent results on the scoreboard. There are a lot of results from the weekend that are confounding if we are taking a linear perspective—let’s start with the triumvirate of Lewis & Clark, CHOP, and Colorado College. As previously mentioned, Bacchus took the hammer to CHOP after jumping out to a 4-0 lead that was never relinquished. Then, they lost on universe to a Wasabi team that was missing leader Oliver van Linder after a mild injury mid-game. Finally, on Sunday morning, CHOP had a hammer of their own, beating CC by the same score they’d lost to Bacchus on the back of an efficient D-line offense captained by the smooth handling of Ben Garcia. While the margins of these games indicate a reasonable attempt at a pecking order, one is still left a little dumbfounded, especially without any film.
Across the complex, there was no scarcity of additional surprise results. Macalester beat Whitman and lost to Lewis & Clark on universe, but fell to an uninspiring Colorado Mines Entropy team. Claremont played close with the top three teams at the tournament, but couldn’t hang with Mines either and barely beat Gonzaga. Now, maybe Entropy are better than the credit I’m giving them right now, given their strong record, but the box score throughout the weekend is just so incredibly confounding. Clearly, there is so much that is matchup-dependent for these teams, and we won’t have a great handle on a true pecking order until later in the spring.
Standout Individuals
The old adage about D-III is that often a single star can propel teams to success, and while that is getting less and less true as more talented rookies and general depth come to the division, there are always still strong performances worth highlighting from the games on stream.
In the Claremont Braineaters’ game against CHOP, they really lived by the deep ball, especially at the start of the game. While there were a number of different tall and fast receivers who were trusted to come down with these shots, it was consistently Arenaria Cramer who was putting them up. With their experience as an important piece for Portland Schwa in the club scene, Cramer’s hucks, especially on the backhand side, were picture-perfect. Especially admirable was their ability to sit flat and then fade outside-in and drop into the bucket at the end of their path and find receivers like Jacques Paradis and Elijah Axt.
Whitman’s Nico Darringer proved his mettle as one of the best handlers in the division against Lewis & Clark. Easily recognizable with his signature blue baseball hat, Darringer was nothing if not calm, cool, and collected at the helm of the Sweets offense. His demeanor of play was not twitchy or particularly fast-paced, at least not as a default, but he was just always in the right place at the right time as a reset handler or fill cutter, consistently finding the exact easiest space for throwers to find him and continue the flow. With the disc, he was precise, especially with his forehands, breaking marks with aplomb.
While their streamed game against Gonzaga was not one of their strongest results of the weekend, Owen and Kyle Suelflow still, as always, showed up and showed out for Macalester Flat Earth. While their playstyles and acute strengths differ somewhat, these twin brothers both bring incredible skills as deep threats and defensive presences, ridiculous speed and ease of finding the disc when inevitably forced under, and wickedly quick sidearm flick hucks, which also translate to some astounding forehand pulls. The Macalester coaching staff, led by Sean Prichard, has clearly realized how to utilize their talent to help the offense best move the disc, creating lots of space for the Suelflows to isolate and create huge separation.
Bid Implications
The jumbled results of this weekend could certainly end up being a wash in terms of end-of-season rankings, especially given how many teams still have not played, but there are certainly some early takeaways.
First, and this probably shouldn’t be a surprise given the trends of the division in the past several years, the Southwest will most definitely be an autobid region once again. Claremont had a mostly solid weekend, but didn’t perform well enough to boost the region’s other teams, and they don’t even really look to be in bid-earning range themselves, not that it particularly matters. Occidental laid a goose egg on the weekend, which certainly doesn’t make matters better for the Southwest.
The North Central will almost definitely have a team in bid-earning range, but whether they have two will definitely be watched closely by all nationals-contending teams in the region. CHOP are the class of the region and should earn a bid if their final tournament isn’t a disaster, but they certainly won’t be wanting Macalester and #x St. Olaf Berzerkers hungrily nipping at their heels to earn a bid at Regionals come May. Flat Earth come out very well in terms of rankings implications in their trio of games against Northwest teams, but again, were sunk by the loss against Colorado School of Mines.
The Northwest and South Central exchanged enough conflicting results to probably allow bubble teams in either to turn a blind eye. Wasabi and Entropy could realistically be fighting for a potential second bid, both being a decent step behind Oklahoma Christian in the South Central, but neither did enough to bolster their chances significantly and the region will likely need a strong result later in the regular season from at least one of these teams to see a strength bid.
