It's the 1v2 seeds for all the marbles!
May 18, 2026 by Josh Katz in Recap
Ultiworld’s coverage of the 2026 College 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.
WAUKEGAN, IL — It’s not every year that you can definitively say that the two best teams in the country are playing in the final game of the season, but that’s exactly what this season, and this weekend, has given us. #1 Middlebury Pranksters will face off against #3 Carleton CHOP in the championship game on Monday morning.
Both teams have been dominant this season. Carleton hasn’t lost since March 22 and are 29-4 overall. Middlebury, somehow, is even better, at 33-2 overall and no losses since February 1 at Florida Warm Up. Carleton has just one win by less than three goals all Series, which was their pool play scare against #11 Whitman Sweets that went to universe point. The last time Middlebury played a game decided by less than three goals was in the quarterfinals of D-III Easterns, on March 29, when they beat #13 Berry Bucks 14-12. For the last six weeks, both of these teams have been unstoppable juggernauts.
The history of this matchup is also immense. Middlebury and Carleton are two of the most successful and storied programs in D-III history. Both have made Nationals nine times. Both have won Nationals twice. Someone is getting title number three on Monday and breaking a drought. If it’s Middlebury, it’s their first since 2019 and it erases years of heartbreak: their large senior class will be playing in the third championship game of their careers. If it’s Carleton, it’s even longer. CHOP won two of the first three D-III titles and haven’t even been back to the title game since that 2012 victory. This weekend was their fifth semis appearance since then.
Somehow, despite all that shared history, they’ve only faced each other four times since the creation of Division III in 2010, and only twice at Nationals. The two Nationals meetings were in 2021 and 2013. In 2021, Middlebury stomped on Carleton in a 15-8 quarterfinal drubbing. In 2013, Middlebury defeated Carleton in pool play, 13-10, en route to their first championship. And those other two meetings were in 2012 and 2019. No one on either team has ever taken part in a Middlebury-Carleton matchup.
As you’d expect, both teams have plenty of star power. Louis Douville Beaudoin is playing the best ultimate of his already impressive young career right now for Middlebury. For the weekend, he’s put up one of the most casual double-doubles we’ll see, scoring 17 goals, tossing 11 assists, and only turning the disc over once. Peter Mans has been a bit quieter, notching “just” a 5G/11A statline, but he showed signs of life when he took over the second half of Middlebury’s semifinal. The trust the two have built with each other is the key to the entire Prankster offense.
The rest of the offense is a hodgepodge of overqualified role players. Oscar de Swaan Arons, Geir Hartl, Jasper Pearcy-Kahn, Ned Cutler, Theo Holdsworth, and Hayden Herrick all could fill featured roles for other teams at Nationals. Hartl is the quartz crystal that keeps the rest of the watch ticking with his smooth and calm demeanor. Pearcy-Kahn and de Swaan Arons make big play after big play. Holdsworth, Herrick, and Cutler fill in when they need to, wherever they’re needed. Middlebury hardly ever gets broken, and with good reason — it’s an incredible offense that works so well together.
The defense, sharpened by having to face that offense in practice for months, is so difficult to move. Gavin Rice and Nadav Melamede typically take the toughest matchups. John Savage and Vincent Sullivan also fill key roles. There’s frequently at least one crossover from the Mans/Douville Beaudoin/Hartl/de Swaan Arons/Pearcy-Kahn quintet as well. Especially in a one-off game like the national championship, expect the Pranksters to be aggressive in their player usage.
Whereas Middlebury’s star players were known on the national scene before this weekend, Carleton’s success has been defined by the players we didn’t know. In our Top 15 Players Ranking, just one Carleton player appeared on anyone’s ballot: Danny Shope, who got a fifteenth place vote from a single panelist. I suspect our All-American voting will not look at all similar. Max Resnik is the likely Breakout Player of the Year and will be high on the shortlist for Offensive Player of the Year and a spot on an All-American team. Posting a double-double, as he’s done, is impressive. Posting fifteen goals and sixteen assists, in just five games, is remarkable. He slithers his way through any defensive look and makes a huge impact even without touching the disc.
The rest of the offense being so good has also helped make Resnik’s case. Julian Kägi does a lot of backfield distribution. Andrew Yeh is always near or in the end zone. Jonah Tannen and Jonah Barer are great at connecting the backfield with the downfield. Henry Horstman Olson and Chris Eppley don’t end up on the scoreboard very frequently, but they do a lot of distributive work to start points. CHOP can make the deep game work when they need to, but this is an offense that thrives on short passes, quick movement, and tight footwork in small spaces. Resnik and Kägi in particular love to jam the disc in at the front of the end zone. So far, that strategy has worked.
You’d be forgiven if you watched CHOP’s defense and thought you had accidentally turned on a Carleton CUT highlight reel. That’s partially because there’s still a Shope making plays deep (Danny, not Thomas), and partially because CHOP’s defense is a well organized, suffocating behemoth that hunts down blocks. The aforementioned Danny Shope is their top matchup defender, but Tomomi Perry, Koa Klose, Nicholas McGlashan, and Thomas Frazelle all make play after play and can singlehandedly erase their matchup from existence. The defensive looks CHOP can throw out confound offenses and trick them into simple mistakes. Whichever Carleton coach is responsible for designing the defense deserves a raise: it’s an extraordinary unit.
Whether or not CHOP’s defense can keep up this level of success will probably determine the result of this game. Can Shope and Perry slow down Mans and Douville Beaudoin? Is that how Carleton will even line them up? If Middlebury’s stars are slowed, can Hartl, de Swaan Arons, and Pearcy-Kahn step up? Can Klose, McGlashan, and Frazelle slow down that trio? Carleton will need to take advantage of every turn they can force and convert those opportunities into breaks; I’m not sure they’ll get many of them.
When was the last time we had a final matchup that was this good on paper in D-III? Probably 2019, when Middlebury beat Air Force Afterburn 15-12. Like this year’s final, it was also between the top two seeds in the tournament. Both teams were 30-3 overall heading into the game. Both teams had top-end stars and great depth. Both editions of Middlebury had a DeLorenzo on the roster – Kai then, Aidan now. The point is, it’s been quite some time since we had the two best teams in the final. Let’s savor it. Tune in for what should be one of the best games of the year.
Ultiworld is streaming the men’s championship game between Middlebury and Carleton live at 10:30 a.m. CST. Follow along with the action by watching on the tournament event page.
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