These three defenders put forth awesome and impactful seasons.
June 17, 2026 by Calvin Ciorba and Josh Katz in Awards
Each year, Ultiworld presents our annual College Awards. Our staff evaluates the individual performances of players from throughout the season, talking to folks around college ultimate, watching film, and look at statistics, voting upon the awards to decide those to be honored. The regular season and the college Series are both considered, with extra emphasis for performances in the competitive and high-stakes environment at Nationals.
Our awards continue with the Defensive Player of the Year, recognizing the individual, and two runners-up, who we felt were the top defensive performers this spring. Whether through generating blocks, shutting down options, helping out teammates, or all of the above, these defenders stood out doing the tough work that too often go unrecognized.
- All-American First Team
- Player of the Year
- All-American Second Team
- Offensive Player of the Year Award
- Defensive Player of the Year Award
- Breakout Player of the Year Award
- Rookie of the Year Award
- Coaches of the Year Award
- Full Awards Voting Breakdown
D-III Men’s 2026 Defensive Player Of The Year
Tomomi Perry (Carleton)
Although this award focuses solely on 2026, let’s be sure to acknowledge that Tomomi Perry has been playing lockdown defense since he set foot on Carleton’s campus, and this recognition for him is overdue. With that out of the way, Perry put on a clinic this year, anchoring a CHOP defense that smothered nearly everyone they faced. Perry may have the quickest ability to get off the ground and lay out for a block of anyone in the division, keeping offenses constantly on edge whenever he is nearby. Totaling eight blocks on the weekend, Perry felt inevitable.
With one more year left in his college career, it will be exciting to see him lead CHOP’s D-line one more time in a season where they have already been called the way-too-early favorites.
– Josh Katz
First Runner-Up
Jedidiah Hamilton (Hillsdale)
It’s pretty rare for players in D-III to earn awards after failing to reach the bracket, but Jed Hamilton’s effort for Hillsdale was impossible to ignore. After posting a division-leading 15 blocks in 2025, Hamilton somehow outdid himself in 2026, totaling 17 blocks — six more than the next-highest mark. The Chargers’ star patrolled the skies, earning nearly all of his blocks in the air, and yet, somehow, handlers still tested him deep. If Hillsdale makes it back to Nationals again in 2027, maybe by then other teams will have learned not to throw deep when Hamilton is in the area.
– Calvin Ciorba
Second Runner-Up
Nadav Melamede (Middlebury)
Nadav Melamede played excellent defense all season long, but his play in the final stands out as one of the best single game performances of the year. A reminder: he completely shut down and shut out Max Resnik, Carleton’s leading scorer, in that game.
Melamede chips in with blocks from time to time, but his excellence on the field comes in the form of completely erasing his matchup. One of the smartest defenders in the division, Melamede always positions himself perfectly to simultaneously take away his matchup and flash into the lane at a moment’s notice.
– Josh Katz
