Eight legs, third title.
August 29, 2026 by Alex Rubin in Recap
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MADISON, Wisc. – For the first time since 2015, the Oakland Spiders are UFA champions. With a comprehensive effort spanning both sides of the disc and all four quarters, the Spiders took down the Minnesota Wind Chill 21-16.
Many of the Spiders players are enjoying an unprecedented run of success. 16 of the 20 active Spiders in Friday’s contest won the World Ultimate Club Championships with San Francisco Revolver earlier this week; they also won last season’s USA Ultimate Club Championships in October and the US Open earlier this month. Riding a wave of confidence from their previous titles, the Spiders entered the final with momentum, and they were facing a Wind Chill team that had some wind taken out of their sails before the game.
Though Minnesota came in with more UFA Championship Weekend experience, competing in the last four of them including the last three title games and having the head-to-head win from the regular season, the Wind Chill entered the title game at a distinct disadvantage. Star hybrid and 2024 Championship Weekend MVP Will Brandt injured his leg during last night’s semifinal and sat out the final. First year hybrid Nate De Morgan got hurt during warmups and was a late scratch for this game as well. While the Wind Chill had players ready to step up, competing without two of their top three statistical leaders on the season would be a big ask.
“We had a couple guys go down last minute on the O-line,” Minnesota’s Dylan DeClerck said, “and that’s always tough when you have some key players who are steady and consistent. We’ve proved all season that we’re a deep team and deep teams have people go down and step up and there’s not much of a change. Our depth was a strength all season.”
Meanwhile, for the first time all season, the Spiders were fully available and healthy; they were so fully loaded that there were too many touches to go around, and star hybrid Adam Rees, who had played just nine points on defense all season, was switched over to the D-line.
Riding the roar of energy from a large and loud crowd, Minnesota built an early lead after breaking on the first point of the game. The Wind Chill’s classic force middle defense had the Spiders O-line stuck on the sideline facing a flat mark and a defense oriented towards helping in the one open lane. Raekwon Adkins was stuck without easy options and tossed a high stall bailout to the middle of the field right to Minnesota’s Cameron Lacy, who bodied out his mark. Lacy shot a huck deep for Thomas Shope to open the scoring.
Throughout the first half, the Minnesota defense found ways to get the disc from Oakland. Dylan DeClerck flew in for several layout blocks, and the Spiders offense had moments when they were as disconnected as they’ve been all season. The Wind Chill found ways to trap pure cutters like Dillon Whited and Chander Boyd-Fliegel in the handler space and generated turnovers from them. Even when Minnesota could not take the disc away, they made Oakland work harder than any other team. Oakland’s time per possession was the higher against Minnesota than any other team they played this season by more than five seconds. But too many execution errors from the Wind Chill prevented Minnesota from taking advantage of the opportunities they had.
“We couldn’t get the breaks on D,” DeClerck said. “O-line played pretty consistent still, but at the end of the day Oakland was just a good team and they beat us…We had good matchups. We have good speed and we have good matchups against them. Our coaches did a great job, our film guys did a great job getting us prepared for the game, and we got opportunities. We had a couple opportunities early to build a two- or three- point lead…and we didn’t convert.”
Micah Davis had a pump fake fall out of his hand. Zach Morton threw into a poach. Noah Coolman threw an open away shot into the seats behind the end zone. In a typical game, none of those mistakes would have been backbreaking, but against an opponent that can grind out scores like Oakland, they were. After they earned a two goal lead towards the end of the first quarter, the Spiders maintained a lead throughout.
In the second half, the Wind Chill tried everything they could to claw back. They threw several defensive looks and launched hucks and hammers to try and score more quickly. Even when the game was clearly out of reach, the Wind Chill were bidding for close throws and lining up poach blocks. No matter the odds, the Wind Chill never quit, played with pride, and refused to back down from any challenge.
Withstanding everything Minnesota threw at them, Walker Frankenberg, Dan Ritthaler, Dexter Clyburn, Leo Gordon, Stefan McCall, Adkins, Boyd-Fliegel, and Whited weaved their way around the field and scored nearly every time. The Spiders did not get broken a single time in the second half as they powered their way towards the title. Oakland played their two best games of the season during Championship Weekend. Their two highest completion percentage marks as a team were at Championship Weekend, and they were able to outlast all of their challengers with a dynamic, diverse offense on both their standard offensive points and on the counterattack.
The last time the Spiders won, they were based in San Jose and the league was called the AUDL. This third title has been a long time coming and reflects both the overall strength of the bay area ultimate community as well as the commitment from the Spiders to rebuild the team from the ground up. Notably, Oakland spent years investing in local youth players who are now contributing All-Star level play. Adkins played on this team as a high schooler four years ago. Stefan McCall, Robin Vickers Batzdorf, Carter Lankford, and Mo Awais joined in later years and offer similar trajectories for continued development.
“We’ve been doing a really good job of bringing youth in for the past couple years,” Frankenberg said on the Gameday Live set after the win. “That was Raekwon three years ago and now he’s just dominating anybody who tries to match up against him. It’s that kind of player, who’s in high school — he’s a senior, he’s looking really good right now like Mo [Awais]. In two or three years when he comes back from college, he’s going to continue dominating. It’s kind of the ethos of the Spiders as a program is developing and building that community and being very lucky to have the talent that we do.”
For the last decade or so, this was a league led by East Coast powers with Jeff Babbitt, Jack Williams, Ben Jagt, and Rowan McDonnell seen as the stars and faces of the league. After this championship run from Oakland, the Spiders are setting up their young players like Frankenberg, Adkins, Orme, and Lankford to become the next wave of stars to compete for All-UFA spots, MVP awards, and perhaps more titles.
