DIII Conference Championships 2013: Open Results

by | April 17, 2013, 12:04pm 0

Atlantic Coast

  • Carolina (April 13/14) – Wake Forest over Elon 13-4. No surprise here. Elon and North Carolina-Asheville qualify for regionals.

  • North Atlantic Coast (April 13/14) – Catholic has had an off year after a relatively strong showing in 2012, but they still take down their conference over Richmond, 13-11. Navy, Mary Washington, and St. Mary’s also qualify for regionals.

Great Lakes

  • East Plains (April 13) – In just a four team conference, Rose-Hulman, a perennial DIII Nationals bubble team, soundly defeats Valparaiso 15-5. Valparaiso does qualify for regionals.

  • Illinois (April 13/14) – In the biggest upset of the weekend, Knox defeats the Great Lakes favorite, North Park, 12-11. Olivet Nazarene also qualifies for regionals.

  • Michigan (April 20) – This developing conference will have its tournament this coming weekend.

Metro East

  • Hudson Valley (April 13/14) – Wesleyan, a previously unranked team, wins in a dominating fashion, taking down Connecticut College 15-5. Siena and Hartford also qualify, knocking last year’s national qualifier, RPI, from competition.

  • MetroNY (April 13) – Stevens takes the conference title, but the College of New Jersey plays them tighter than I would expect. Stevens wins. 15-13. Stockton also qualifies for regionals.

  • WesternNY (April 20/21) – This eleven team event will allow us to revisit the SUNY-Fredonia vs SUNY-Geneseo debate that has been raging over the past few months.

New England

  • Metro Boston (April 13/14) – In probably the most important result of the weekend, Brandeis upsets Bentley 15-13 in the finals. Seeding at regionals won’t be an issue, but this is a key psychological victory for the slight underdog, Brandeis. Despite gaining the region a bid, Wentworth takes 4th place behind Merrimack. The 5th and final bid to regionals goes to Gordon College.

  • South New England (April 13/14) – Although they were seeded 2nd, it is no surprise that Amherst comes out on top here. They had some trouble in pool play, but when it came down to it, they defeated Clark 13-2. Bryant also qualifies for regionals.

  • North New England (April 20/21) – This event was rescheduled to this coming weekend. Dartmouth (a D1 team) will very likely be the winner, but Middlebury and Bowdoin will try to gain some confidence before DIII regionals.

North Central

  • Lake Superior (April 13/14) – There aren’t any likely national contenders from this conference, but Milwaukee Engineering takes down Wisconsin-Parkside 15-7 in the finals. Parkside does, however, take the second bid to North Central regionals.

  • West Plains (April 13/14) – Grinnell takes down an easy conference, beating Luther-B in the finals, 11-8. However, it’s unlikely that Grinnell will be able to snag the one North Central Bid in what will be the toughest DIII regional event. Luther-B takes the second bid to regionals.

  • Northwoods (April 20/21) – There shouldn’t be any issue with bids to regionals here, but this will likely be the first of two matchups between Carleton GoP and St. John’s BAM, the second of which will decide who qualifies for DIII Championships. If you are going to pay attention to any conference this weekend, make it this one.

Ohio Valley

  • East Penn (April 13/14) – Lehigh easily holds seed, and crushes Swarthmore in the finals, 15-2. Haverford beats Swarthmore in the second place bracket to take second. Swarthmore does qualify for regional with the third bid, and Franklin & Marshall takes the 4th and final bid.

  • Ohio (April 13/14) – Kenyon is taking the D1 route, but beats Xavier 13-10. By playing close with Kenyon, Xavier has solidified their position as the team to beat in the region. Denison, Oberlin and Ohio Wesleyan take 3rd, 4th and 5th respectively and all gain bids to Ohio Valley regionals.

  • West Penn (April 13/14) – Messiah only loses to Dickinson 13-11 in pool play, but, due to Pittsburgh-Johnstown’s 13-9 victory over Dickinson, Johnstown and Messiah make the championship game on point differential. Messiah wins 13-7, and Dickinson and Bucknell also qualify. Messiah is a team on the rise, but it is unlikely that they have what it takes to beat Xavier.

Northwest

  • Northwest (April 13/14) – No surprise here. Puget Sound takes the conference (and region) in a dominating fashion, never giving up more than six points (against PLU). The Northwest has only one conference, so Puget Sound qualifies for DIII Championships.

South Central

  • South Central (April 20/21) – The largest conference championship will take place this coming weekend. This conference sends 3 bids straight to nationals, so it should be a good one.

Southeast

  • In an unfortunate turn of events, there were no other DIII teams in the Southeast to contest Georgia College and State, who automatically qualify for DIII championships. This is not good for DIII ultimate, so maybe after the season, DIII players, organizers and USAU can find a solution to the problem of regions with very few teams. (This is even a bigger problem in women’s DIII ultimate.)

Southwest

  • Southwest (April 13/14) – Claremont played Occidental twice, going down early in the first half of both games. However, in both games, Claremont’s depth was too much for Occidental to match. Claremont wins 15-11 in the finals, and joins Puget Sound and Georgia College and State as the first three teams to qualify for DIII Championships.

Stay tuned this next weekend for the three most competitive and interesting conference championship events, Northwoods, South Central and WesternNY.

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