Who are the best players in the North Central region? This is an open thread to discuss All-Region nominations, All-Freshman nominations, coaching awards, and more. Stay positive and keep it civil.
Solomon Golden ('24) has the fiercest mark in the region, incredible throws, and never gets tired. He is the heart of the Grinnell D-line and is the first to cross over to O-line in a tight game.
Will Norry ('25) unquestionably has some of the best deep throws in DIII, but his ability to remain calm and consistently get open in the reset space and throw perfect resets no matter the wind is the kind of consistency that improves the entire team.
Eli Boeding ('27) has excelled as a freshman D-line cutter. He uses his speed and size to threaten the deep space as well as find many open unders. He is the first to peel off and play strong help defense in the deep space, but he can also play lock-down person defense against whoever is unlucky enough for him to guard.
Nick Culver and Rebecca “Bex” Crown have excelled as new coaches for the Grinnell program. They consistently are looking to improve individuals, talking to different players after every point, while simultaneously making macro, strategical changes that across the board improve team play.
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The Donajkowski twins on Disco Tech have been forces to be reckoned whenever they are on the field. They can easily dictate the pace of the game if you let them start to cook and 87 has knows how to work the unders like a bat out of hell.
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Thomas Hobday ('24) for saint johns university. Someone who can truly do it all. Want to go every other for 50 throws tom. 70 flick huck tom. I have never seen someone who will outrun someone until they are broken down then do it again next point. If he doesn’t beat you on his first cut he’ll continue breaking you down until you start to doubt if your even a good defender. He may not be the regions best thrower, cutter, or defender but he is the regions hardest worker and the regions most well rounded player.
North central d3 all region team has gotta start with Wills Brandt and Norry from St. Olaf and Grinnell. Round that piece out with Eric Crosby Lehman and Gordon Larson from St. Olaf, Sol Golden from Grinnell, that chop guy with the red cleats with no identifiable characteristics due to the lack of jersey numbers, and your pick of the Disco Twins. If you think I’m wrong fight me at regionals. JK, all love, excited to see you guys soon 
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Here are some thoughts after Northwoods conferences:
I think one of the biggest shoutouts needs to go to Jonny Schlaefer on Winona State. Biz was good but Jonny may be better. He just did everything for them. His release points on his throws were insane and if he could find a way to get a hand on the disc, regardless of how poor the throw was, he was going to catch it. They didn’t qualify for regionals but it was so much fun to watch him play.
A couple guys on Macalester also need shoutouts. Owen and Kyle Suelflow will beat you with both their throws (which they were making in like insulated deerskin gloves all weekend??) and their athleticism. Just an absolute nightmare to try to defend against. Noah Chen was also a threat as seemingly their most talented handler who, if I’m not mistaken, was also battling an injury on Sunday (I could be wrong though.). The Macalester program seems to have quite a bit of depth, and I’m sure I’m missing some people, but these are the three that stood out to me.
We didn’t play St. Olaf but Will Brandt is super good at everything and Gordon Larson is good too as seen in this Ultiworld article that came out in 2022: “While his defense is certainly the strongest part of his game, Larson was also an asset on the turn for the Berzerkers, notching 5 goals and 9 assists in Milwaukee. WHILE HIS CAREER AT ST. OLAF IS OVER, we’ll continue to get to see Larson play at the club and semi-pro level for Sub Zero and the Wind Chill, respectively.” I guess they got that one wrong cuz that dude is still killing it.
On St. Johns, Tom Hobday was fun to watch and he just killed us all over the field. They also had some dude with a man-bun but I cant remember his name. He was just cutting and catching everything that was thrown to him.
Lastly on St. Thomas (disclaimer, I’m associated with this team), It will be fun to watch Tyler wolf Williams play at regionals against some good competition. It’s kind of wild how much of a difference just one dude can make in a game, but it’s evident with him.
The North Central region is one of the strongest in the country, littered with players and teams that would fit right in at D3 nationals. Sadly, big ultimate colluded to create massive bubbles in the NE and SC to prevent the true power of the NC region from coming to light. If the world could see the level of grit that exists throughout the NC, they would be trembling in their boots.
Now to the amazing players that give this region it’s reputation. My pick for top 7 in the region:
- Will Brandt
- Gordon Larson
- Eric CL
- Matt Kompelien
- Chris O`Mara
- Michigan tech guy with long hair wearing a bandana/neckie
- One of the Macalester twins (take your pick)
Honorable mentions: Tyler Wolf Williams, Jonah?(Wave shirt guy from CHOP), Will Norry, Thomas Hobday, Jacob (from Carthage)
All freshman nominations (I don’t know who’s a freshman on other teams):
- Jake Magner, I’ll bet that he leads all D3 freshman in goals scored up until this point. Stop trying to guard him
- Max Sponseller, the Matt Gouchoe-Hanas of the D3 division, he will catch every pull, not blink at any defensive set, and I think he’s under 5 turnovers on the season
- Ethan Landgreen, he can throw it further than the best player on your team
- Liam Griffin, brings lots of experience as a freshman to drive the offense and play smothering handler D
- Jackson Forebaugh, super smart defender, won’t see him till it’s too late
- Luke Williams, don’t test him deep even you Will Brandt
- Hayden Fahnhorst, coming in with club experience shows, he’s stable with the disc and shifty as a receiver
- Gabe Badillo Moorman, fat bids and dime balls, Gabe is a 2 way threat who will punish you
- Kemble Rains, a motor that doesn’t stop and the grit to fight
- Doc Flight, ferda, legend, fearless leader who’s willing to battle, huge growth despite very little frisbee experience
- David Kim, will cook you and you won’t know what to do about it, get him in space and it’s game over
- Jake Schmidt(freshman in our heart), defensive dog, some huge throws and not afraid to hit the ground
There is some phenomenal talent in this region and with a couple more in region games during the regular season, maybe we too can manufacture a algorithmic bubble.
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Obviously first team, second team, and third team should all go to the Macalester roster, but big frisbee won’t admit it’s true. Instead, I’ll talk about other teams.
Tyler Wolf Williams (St. Thomas). He’s great in every area on the field, but especially his deep throws. He’s got the touch and precision to throw to the incredibly wide range of speed and disc-reading skills on his team. I saw every other team at regionals, and Tyler had the best pulls in the tournament.
Tom Hobday (St. John’s). Tom is certainly a top-three all-around player, but he’s likely the number one player to have if your team came to a tournament with less than 14 players and you need one person to go every other, every point, every game. The guy with the bun that Randy mentioned was the only person to ever lock up either of the Suelflow twins (Macalester) in an endzone iso. This was also while playing basically every point with Tom Hobday.
Will Norry (Grinnell), is indeed that good. He’s big and has huge throws.
Jacob Brodkorp and the guy with the long hair (Carthage) are both fast and can run the backfield at a speed that is difficult for anyone to keep up with.
All from Carleton CHOP, Danny Shope cleaned up in the deep space. For the second year in a row, Jonah (Tannen? Eye-black Jonah) was the hardest person for us to shut down. Nathan Wang had some of the most casual, yet surgical placement of downwind throws I’ve seen this year. I’ve heard that Chris O’Mara also plays with this team.
Will Brandt and Gordon Larson (St. Olaf) become exponentially more effective when on the field together. They both are dangerous in front of or behind the disc. Eric Crosby Lehman also provides a lot of highlight-reel plays.
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A few of the names/players that jumped out to me from the weekend:
#87 (Clayton Donajowski?) on Michigan Tech- we didn’t play them, but in preparation for the weekend he was the player who I was keeping an eye out for, and in the games I watched he seemed to be a calming presence with the disc, and a reliable defender in big and small spaces.
Owen and Kyle Suelflow from Mac- I think we’re all catching on, but these guys are a ton of fun to watch. Super athletic receivers, and ridiculous power on their flicks. If you’re still questioning their deerskin gloves approach, the one point one of them (not sure which tbh) wasn’t wearing them he had a flick flutter out of bounds. Put the gloves on and he was back to launching.
#3 Jacob Brodkorb on Carthage has shown a ton of improvement over the last few years. It was cool to see how much he is driving the offense for them this year. (Also, shout out to Jimmy Chaudoin, returning to coach after graduation- cool to see him still helping the program develop.
Will Norry on Grinnell isn’t a new name, but still had a solid regionals. Looking forward to seeing what Grinnell can cook up next year with what sounds like a young roster.
A few names from CHOP:
Danny Shope plays great for them, especially on defense in the game to go. What seemed like a crazy number of deep blocks, and solid disc skills make him so valuable to that D-line.
Ami Endo is a great downfield option, killed our defenders in the under space. Also had one of the highlights of the weekend over like 3 defenders in the gtg.
Pah Na I asked a friend at Carleton for the name, so that could be wrong, but the player who scored the winning goal in the game to go. Ran some clean endzone sets and played great defense in that game.
Chris O’Mara No shocker here, such a talented player, a real joy to watch and coach against. Always high spirit in any matchup, his inside breaks to the rails were a problem, and he’s made some highlight layout snags to save possession. Excited to see what he can do on the big stage.
Ok, now for the Zerks:
Will Brandt is a no-brainer for all-region, and will likely be on some podiums post-nationals too. Will’s combination of IQ, athleticism, throwing ability, and length, make him a matchup nightmare on either side of the disc.
Gordon Larson is also not a surprise to see here- Gordon started playing ultimate just over 4 years ago, and he’s already a terror in club, let alone college play.
Eric Crosby-Lehmann is the most underrated player in the region. (This is me removing my bias, because I would say he’s the most underrated player in the country.) He returned from injury mid season and immediately had an impact, a menace in the handler space and driver of D-line offense.
Matt Kompelien has always been an outstanding thrower, but he’s adding defensive intensity and athleticism to his bag that pushes him into the all-region conversation.
Jonas Geere loves ultimate almost as much as he loves ripping a huck for a break. If you see him in power position, sell out to stop that backhand.
A few freshman to also recognize:
Max Sponseller has been so good he flies under the radar. He catches every pull, gets open for every reset, and never turns the disc. Luke may have undersold it when he said 7 turns on the season, his reliability with the disc is remarkable for someone his age.
Jake Magner is a tale as old as time, soccer player turned frisbee phenom. His speed allows him to create separation with ease, but at regionals he started to display more knowledge of how to get up for a disc hanging as well. Can’t wait to see him play at nationals and over the next few years.
Finally, want to give a shoutout for COTR (idk if coach of the region is a thing) But Mr. Bleers has smoothly made the transition from star player to coach over the last two years, and with life demanding more attention from frisbee from the rest of the coaching staff, Luke’s dedication to the Zerks has kept the development of these young players going like a well-oiled machine.
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Jack Keller here, senior captain of Macalester Flat Earth. Just want to give some shoutouts and also be a cheerleader for my great teammates this past year.
From Mac
Owen / Kyle Suelflow: Hard to distinguish the twins sometimes but as someone who’s played with them for a while now I’d like to highlight each of their strengths.
Owen has been a rock for the D line this year. His defensive pressure, especially on unders has improved dramatically over the past year. The man’s hammer game is out of this world, he had a monster tournament this past weekend, was just an animal on defense and in transition O.
Kyle on the other hand has been safety blanket/WR1/the easiest initiating cut the entire season. He’s truly a cheat code and makes any handler’s life a million times easier.
Both twins have a cannon for an arm, truly are the most athletic white men I know and continue to improve at such a rapid pace. Not sure if the rest of the region knows they’ve been playing for only two years (they’re sophomores), and I can’t wait for you guys to make nationals so the entire division can appreciate how great you guys are and will continue to become.
Noah Chen: My day 1, dude is just a menace to play against. Guy just radiates goat aura, has every throw in the book, insane speed and acceleration. I think the twins take a lot of the perception off of him but he has commanded both the offense and defense of this team for the past three years. He is amazing to handle with, gets free uplines anytime he wants. Just a dog, and the main reason why our team is so competitive today.
Other Shoutouts
Most of these CHOP players have already been mentioned…
Chris O’Mara: Such a sweet man, yet unbelievable throws and a confident command of his O Line. Super stoked to see him crush it at nationals.
Ami Endo: I got roofed by Ami in the game to go and I’m still healing from that, other than that just always open on the field, such a nightmare to guard.
Danny Shope: We put up some ill advised hucks in that second half of the gtg, but never seen another player just completely wipe that part of our game out like that. Props to danny for some incredible play in the deep space.
No. 7 on Zerks: I don’t know names and all your players look the same but had the privilege of matching up w/ this guy a few times over the past two years. I think any player on Zerks deserves a shoutout but this guy just has super consistent throws, great confidence all over the field and is always awesome to watch when we run into St. Olaf.
Solomon Golden: Known this guy for a bit, always a blast playing against Grinnell when we run into them. Amazing flick-hucks, great mark and motor too. Awesome to see him run the D-line this year.
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After Regionals, just wanted to highlight some players who really impressed me and aren’t the big names getting mentioned again and again on this thread.
#0 on St. Olaf, Mac, and Grinnell. Man can those boys defend, and all three seemed to be effective handlers after the turn. Consistantly taking tough matchups then leading the d-line offense to breaks. Apparently #0 is only for elite D-line Handlers in North Central. Pretty sure all three matched up with Chris Omara playing CHOP which speaks to the faith their teams have in them.
69 on Mac and St. John both seem to have some pre college experience, and both had high reving motors that were crucial to their team.
CHOP #47 can throw a disc and did ok against will brandt which is honestly all you can ask for.
Luther #7 is a phenomenal athlete, and if he played for a deeper team would probably be freed up to be the defensive wrecking ball he has the potential to be. Great thrower, great competitior, and seems to be a lovely dude.
Speaking of #7’s Disco Tech #7 and Luther #7 can both chuck a hammer. Like really chuck a hammer. You think you’re playing good downfield defense and then some patrick mahomes type throw beats you deep to a tiny window. Crazy game breaking throw with crazy range from both of them, it truly breaks the game open.
#17 on grinnell, who’s apparently a freshman, really opened up the game for them. Dude made some nutty catches, and I’m excited to see how him and the rest of what seemed to be a young team develops.
Shoutout all the female identifying players on Carthage. They often got overlooked by defenders who thought they were opportunities to poach off, and they were more than happy to punish that mistake. Cool to watch them ball out in the open division.
Shoutout everyone, and good luck to CHOP and St. Olaf at Nationals!
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Saw some incredible play this past weekend!
Noted highlights were Solomon Golden on Grinnell who was incredibly intense when it came to marking and could break almost any mark. He completely shadowed Will Norry who I had expected more from.
Tech really showed up this weekend and proved the depth of their program. With what feels like an average height on the team of 6’4" the giants of the north had an incredible deep game and lead some posterizing of other teams. The twins showed out this weekend also, but plenty of newer faces down field impressed me. I worry though if enrollment at tech keeps increasing, they might get forced out of D3 if they go over 7.5k
Luther showed up exactly how I expected, being carried by their only senior Griffin Glassel, but his surrounding cast also has some highlights this weekend. You wouldn’t expect more than half of the team to be new, but according to Captain Simon McDonald, the team only had 5 returners and will only lose 1 senior this year and next. This team might prove to be a powerhouse in the years to come if they can keep recruiting.
Chop as always looked great, no notes to add
Platteville struggled this weekend, and some car troubles didn’t help with some players not being able to make the first game on Sunday. Number 5 on the team was consistently overlooked as a deep threat and was seen beating matchups he had no business beating.
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This is Griffin Glassel, Lufda Captain
I wanted to shout-out some of my awesome teammates who made this year (which was very much a rebuilding year) into a super fun and competitive season!
Starting off with Freshmen:
Sean Medcalfe is a freshman who joined the team in January 2024 and just rocked the playing field. The Georgian-born, half british Luther College Football kicker, and Cricket enthusiast came to frisbee to show his pure athleticism and physical prowess. Sean guarantees a 51% catch chance on every deep throw, so it makes it pretty hard for me to not send him. He has also been making huge strides on the other side of the disc with his kickoff skills proving helpful for the pressure of pulling and I see him being Lufda’s next puller for the coming years.
Eli Miller is a freshman soccer reject who charms you with his beautiful smile then destroys you with his vert. He may be an inch shy of 5’9" but he still competes with the tallest on the field and will bid for anything.
Karlton Anderson is a natural born leader who I can see leading Lufda into the next golden era. Karl is an all around great player and brings his skills from Volleyball, Soccer, Tennis, Swimming, and Nordic Skiing to the frisbee field and simply dominates. Karl is by far the best throwing freshman on the team, and attributes all incomplete throws to his “gosh darn disc golf muscle memory”
Moving away from the freshmen, we have an insane class of sophomores
Peter McBride is the current Lufda vice president and captain of the Luther College Men’s Bowling Team. Peter is the second McBride to make his way through Lufda and, like his older brother, is a stone-cold shooter on the field. Peter’s hammers (Phammers) have broken through more zones and scores more points than the rest of the team’s hammers combined. He is on track to be an “every-other” type hander with his ability and drive to give and go down the field.
Liam Edberg is the best bidder on the team. Liam showed up to tryouts last year and blew us out of the water with his willingness to throw his body around the field. Liam has only made one practice per week these last two years due to 5 days a week of orchestra rehearsals seeing as he is one of the top violinists at Luther College, and yet he still puts in so much work outside of practices and shows up to tournaments ready to ball out. He played in high school and continues to play club and summer league in the Iowa City area. Expect big things in the coming years from him.
Simon McDonald is the final player I’ll highlight. Simon was my co-captain this year and has done an incredible job to step up as a sophomore to lead this team. Simon is an all around amazing player as he beats my vert, my throwing distances, and has started to pick up on my low releases. Simon still has a long way to go with the second half of his college career ahead of him, but will come in hot to the next tow seasons after he gains the confidence and field awareness awarded from club over the summer.
As far as other teams go, a lot of the names I was going to mention have been said, but I’ll just add the names I know
Sol - Grinnell
Noah Fehr - Grinnell
Gabe - Chop
Ami - Chop
Max (Spoons) - Zerks
Andrew - UWP
Merls and Donna - Tech coaches
Also shoutout to the Concordia Captains who were by far the most spirited and fun to play against. Also thank you for loving the La La Land soundtrack <3
<3 you also seem to be lovely
To second a few posts already here, Griffin Glassel #7 on Luther is a phenomenal player. He is super athletic with super clean fundamentals. The team Luther brought to regionals only had 5 returners, but even the freshman on the line look like they’re shaping up to be a powerful team. Excited for the future of LUFDA!