COLLEGE PREVIEW
O PEN
D IVISI O N III
Wind is the Name of the Game By: Zack Purdy
III T DIVISION
he level of Division III competition has grown by leaps and bounds since the 2010 inception of D-III Championships. The 2013 Championships in Milwaukee, Wis., promise to be no exception.
With the advent of the new early-season national tournament, D-III Warm Up, we have an unprecedented look at how the top D-III teams stack up. However, Milwaukee, like Appleton, is known to be a particularly windy location, so the outcome of D-III Championships could be decided by the quality of teams’ play in the wind. This fact, combined with the overall parity in the division, means there are many teams that could make a run at a championship.
Likely Contenders: Puget Sound Postmen Given their second place finish at the 2012 D-III Championships and their dominant performance at this year’s D-III Warm Up, the Postmen are the clear favorites to take home a Division III Championship. They have a great coach in Adam Lerman, while Spencer Sheridan, Jonas Cole, Eric Hopfenbeck and Peter Geertz-Larson provide a depth of skill and athleticism unmatched in the division.
the wind at Huck Finn, but with all-star handler Taren Goins and athletic cutter Tucker Bankston, they could easily make a run at the Championships.
Wake Forest After a weak finish at the 2012 Championships and a hard weekend at ACCUC this spring, Wake Forest has been on the uptick. With a close game against Carnegie-Mellon and a strong universe-point win against Georgetown (two Division I schools), Wake looks to have the skill to play with the best teams in D-III.
Dark Horses: Rice is carried by the strong play of Michael Drewry, and showed they have what it takes in 2012. SUNY-Fredonia’s top two players have been injured, but when they return, this could be a team to look out for. Stevens Tech has an experienced line of players and is currently undefeated, though also untested. Bentley also delivered a strong tournament performance at the UNH Spring Open, so if their star handler, Alex Foo, can handle the wind in Milwaukee, Bentley could improve on their quarters finish in 2012.
Carleton College Gods of Plastic Puget Sound and Claremont went one-two at the D-III Warm Up and may meet again late in bracket play at the D-III Championships. Photo: Gregory Wu
The Gods of Plastic, or GoP for short, also performed very well at D-III Warm Up, only losing two close games to Claremont. What’s more, GoP has always been a team that peaks during the Championships. GoP is perhaps the division’s strongest team in windy conditions, so they stand to gain the most from a potentially windy 2013 D-III Championships. Don’t be surprised to see another finals appearance from GoP.
Claremont Braineaters The Brains had a strong performance on their home turf at D-III Warm Up, losing in the finals to the Postmen. However, their play in the wind was tested on Sunday at Trouble in Vegas, and it didn’t stack up to the level we saw from GoP and the Postmen in 2012. However, if this fast team, led by Devin Drewry, can shore up their fundamentals in time for the series, they could be a serious title contender.
Harding Apocalypse Harding gave a strong performance at the 2011 Championships and barely missed qualifying in 2012 after falling to an upstart Rice team at Regionals. Apocalypse is back this year with a vengeance, and a few more bids from their region. They too had problems with S p rSipnrgi n2g 0 1230 1 3
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