August 26, 2025
By Evan Lepler
Tuesday Toss: Championship Weekend recap | Part 1
1. Minnesota's magical run falls short in the final
I’m still shaking my head in bemused astonishment over what the Minnesota Wind Chill have accomplished over the course of the past 12 and a half months. But really, it’s been the entire decade so far.
Since 2021, Minnesota’s gone 10-2 or 9-3 in every season. They’ve also gone 8-4 in the playoffs over the past five seasons, buoyed by six consecutive wins over the past couple years. While the postseason winning streak was snapped by Boston in the finals, it still, by virtually any measure, was an overwhelmingly successful playoff run for the Wind Chill.
Defeating Chicago in dramatic fashion on the Union’s home field in the Central final was exceptionally sweet, but toppling Atlanta for the second time this season on Friday night arguably did even more for the Wind Chill’s reputation around the UFA. The way they won—outscoring the Hustle 8-4 in the fourth quarter to prevail by two—spoke to the team’s unbelievable ability to bring pressure, be creative, and rise up in the clutch.
“We went down a little bit, but found a way to battle back,” said Paul Krenik, shortly after his brilliant two-goal, two-assist, five-block performance in the semifinals. “That’s been a big theme throughout this year, just finding ways to battle back even when the other team might count us out, even when the fans might count us out. Just find a way to battle back and push through adversity.”
We nearly witnessed a very similar comeback in the finals, as the Wind Chill—after trailing by as many as five—had several chances in the closing minutes to inch back within one against the Glory. Honestly, at the end of the night, it felt less like Minnesota’s magic ran out and more like the Chill just ran out of time. If both teams had somehow agreed to play a fifth quarter—with the way Minnesota’s mojo and Boston’s nerves were flexing in the fourth—one could have easily envisioned the Wind Chill fully digging themselves out of that five-goal hole.
Even in defeat, Minnesota clearly earned a ton of respect. Exactly half of their 20-man roster for Saturday’s final was younger than 26 years old, and the way they continued to relentlessly fight could serve as a template for other teams to study. Boston’s defense finally suffocated their still-shaky O-line in the pivotal third quarter, but the Chill still sent a loud and powerful message to all of their doubters.
They are the only franchise that’s been at each of the past three Championship Weekends, and it would be staggeringly foolish to think they aren’t a clear favorite to make their fourth straight final four in 2026.
2. Little things add up in another Hustle heartbreaker
For the vast majority of the first three quarters in their Friday night semifinal, the Atlanta Hustle looked like they were destined to battle Boston in Saturday’s championship game. Sure, there were some scratchy moments along the way, but the Hustle opened the third quarter against the Wind Chill with three straight scores, building a four-goal lead that, frankly, from my perch in the broadcast booth, felt sorta safe.
Obviously, circumstances quickly changed, as Minnesota upped its intensity and rode the energy of the hundreds if not thousands of Wind Chill fans who had made the trip from the Twin Cities to inspire their team.
The Hustle led 14-10 with 6:07 remaining in the third, but they were outscored 11-4 in the next 13-plus minutes, a breathtaking run that spanned the last two quarters and left Atlanta reeling, trailing by three with just under five minutes left in the game. It was a stretch that saw the Hustle make a slew of mistakes, some of which were provoked by the Wind Chill pressure, while others were seemingly unforced errors in the heat of the moment.
Atlanta showed plenty of heart, creating several late deflections to give themselves a chance in the closing minutes. Lukas McClamrock, in particular, got his fingertips on two different floating swings, but Minnesota’s Quinn Snider and Greg Cousins both made insane layout grabs to somehow maintain possession for the Wind Chill and deny the Hustle the break chances that they desperately needed.
In the end, the Hustle’s South Division title certainly represents a significant and positive step forward for Atlanta, but in letting another winnable playoff game slip away, the team will need to continue to contend with its demons through another tough offseason.
3. Salt Lake's second half mistakes doom Shred in semis
My hunch is that if you would’ve told Bryce Merrill that his team would register five breaks and finish with just 13 turns, the Salt Lake Head Coach would’ve felt pretty decent about his team’s chances to potentially knock off the Glory on Friday night. And the Shred were right there in the fourth quarter, within one at 18-17 after Matt Russnogle’s electric layout score with 5:41 remaining.
But Salt Lake’s offense went quiet late, as the Glory closed out the Shred with three straight scores to prevail 21-17 in Friday’s opening semifinal. The Glory had just nine turns in the game, all of which came from the team’s O-line. Meanwhile, Salt Lake only mustered five breaks in nine chances, which wasn’t quite efficient enough to match Boston’s brilliant 8-for-8 performance.
Despite the result, Merrill’s postgame message was extraordinarily positive.
“I love y’all,” Merrill told his team postgame, as seen in this Instagram post. “You played your hearts out. You stuck to the game plan for us. We played it together. That’s a game with two minutes left. That is so much heart. That’s all we have done all season long. Losing stings real bad, but I love the effort, I love the way we played, I love the way we lost.”
If not for a small handful of mistakes, it might not have been a loss. Even though they were undersized compared to the Glory, they went toe-to-toe with the team that ultimately became the champs, challenging them in many bold ways. Reed Browning miraculously outdueled Jeff Babbitt on a huck, creating a thrilling SportsCenter Top 10 highlight, 20-year-old Sam Pew launched himself for a huge layout block on Tobe Decraene in another memorable moment, and many of Salt Lake’s standouts hit their normal marks in terms of scores, yardage, and overall contributions. But the miscues—along with an inability to take the disc away from Boston’s red-hot D-line—were the Shred’s ultimate undoing.
The most painful error came in the closing seconds of the third quarter, when Tannor Johnson-Go intercepted Nate De Morgan’s short swing and quickly unleashed a floaty backhand into the end zone, which Brendan McCann hauled in to give Boston a three-goal lead. Whereas the Shred were hoping that a buzzer-beater might bring them back within one, the margin stunningly grew to three in a blink of an eye.
Salt Lake responded early in the fourth, with back-to-back breaks to inch within one, but the deficit was ultimately too wide to completely overcome.
“[Salt Lake] played an amazing game,” said Decraene, praising the Shred after he threw nine assists in the semifinal. “We expected them to come out tough and play physical and that’s what they did. But I’m very proud of my team because we got the win and showed we can play very physical as well.”
4. A shining weekend in the capital city
Over the course of the two days, over 4,000 fans made their way into Breese Stevens Field for the UFA’s 2025 Championship Weekend. The weather was perfect, the crowd was hyped, and the ultimate was intense from wire-to-wire.
Notably, it was the second straight year that all three games across the semis and finals were decided by four goals or fewer. The wind was far less of a factor than last year’s blustery conditions in Salt Lake, but it wasn’t a total non-factor, especially on Saturday when the flags were feeling the fairly significant breeze throughout the night.
The energy from the stands was truly special. Minnesota fans, in particular, came in droves and desperately tried to impact the game with their presence, shouting, signs, lights, and all-around aura. Inevitably, the mystique they helped create absolutely swayed certain moments in the Wind Chill’s favor, though it wasn’t quite enough to get them across the line on Saturday. And Boston fans were pretty noisy too, using soccer-style vuvuzelas to add to the nonstop atmosphere throughout the championship game.
In virtually every way, I cannot recall a better UFA Championship Weekend, and I’ve been in attendance at each of the last 11 final fours. There have been plenty of iconic moments and great crowds in the past, but the combination of competitiveness, conditions, crowd, and setting was quite simply as good as it gets.
5. The Chill’s stunning “Snake in the Grass”
Over the years in the UFA, we’ve seen a small handful of “snakes in the grass”, but never anything quite like the momentum-swinging madness that transpired late in the third quarter on Friday night.
Trailing by two with less than a minute left in the third, Wind Chill Coach Ben Feldman called for the trick play that the team had been saving for the perfect moment.
“That’s a Feldy-original,” said Krenik, at Saturday morning’s presser. “We knew it was in our bag. We knew that we could pull it out whenever we wanted. We just had to make sure it was the right time.”
Whereas six of the Wind Chill’s seven defenders raced down the field to match up with their Hustle counterparts, Krenik quietly stood near the Wind Chill sideline. He was on the field, but his goal was to blend into the Minnesota bench, essentially hiding in plain sight. Atlanta’s Adam Miller realized he was unguarded and took off into the deep space, and Austin Taylor launched what looked like a majestic flick huck toward the open cutter.
And that’s when Krenik broke toward the floating frisbee, easily intercepting the disc and quickly initiating a break chance.
“It’s a good play,” said Krenik, matter-of-factly. “It usually gets a block.”
Five throws later, Blake Krapfl connected with Cam Lacy for the goal that brought Minnesota within one with just 28 seconds left in the third. Atlanta still closed out the quarter with a successful deep shot from Brett Hulsmeyer to Cameron Brock, taking a two-goal lead into the fourth, but when sharing the story of the Wind Chill’s comeback victory in the years to come, the ‘snake in the grass’ will inevitably be one of the first memories that gets mentioned.
“A lot of things have to go right with that play,” explained Feldman, “and it takes a lot of composure to convert when the guys on the field are like, ‘holy shit, that worked.’ It’s a pretty big distraction. A couple questionable throws there to finish that one off, but we got it done. We’ve got a lot of tools in the toolbox, and to beat really good teams in the biggest games when you’re struggling or behind, you gotta be willing to be creative.”
6. Ben G-M’s awesome anthem
Do yourself a favor.
If by some chance you missed Ben Gagne-Maynard’s awesome electric guitar national anthem on Saturday night, go back and give it a listen. Gagne-Maynard played 11 games for the 2021 Atlanta Hustle, before suffering a serious injury that hasn’t let him return to the field. But he’s spent the past few seasons as a Radicals assistant coach, and clearly his electric guitar skills and ability to meet the moment as a musician were phenomenal.
Side note: to my knowledge, Gagne-Maynard is also the only UFA player or coach to ever appear on Jeopardy!, which is pretty darn cool too!
7. The All-Star Game upset
I won’t pretend that I’m an expert when it comes to the Premier Ultimate League or the Western Ultimate League, the two women’s leagues that waged their first All-Star Game against one another on Saturday afternoon, prior to the UFA’s championship contest. And perhaps I was swayed by talking to Kaela Helton—who absolutely crushed it as an analyst on our Gameday Live set during the semis on Friday—but the sense I got from everyone was that the Western Ultimate League was about to dominate their generally more eastern counterparts.
Oh, contraire!
The PUL jumped in front 6-0, led 11-2, and never really looked back, routing the WUL in super convincing fashion.
While I wish the fans had gotten a more competitive, down-to-the-wire game—remember, the first ever UFA All-Star Game went to double-overtime in 2019—it was still a very special showcase for our sport, and clearly the fans enjoyed the spectacle of seeing these top players all on the field at the same time.
If this became an annual partner with the UFA’s Championship Weekend, well that would be just fine with me.
The Hammer
I began writing the Tuesday Toss back in 2015, so this year marks 10 full seasons of tossing each and every Tuesday. It remains a labor of love, and I’m extraordinarily grateful to the players and coaches for sharing their insight and perspective throughout the season. Even more, I’m thankful for all the fans who devour these columns throughout the spring and summer.
The world of professional frisbee is certainly still evolving, but for anyone who experienced 2025 Championship Weekend, I think you would agree that we are moving in the right direction. Everything about this past weekend felt legit, and we were fortunate to have four great teams and thousands of fans coming together for another special frisbee spectacle.
By the way, with the attendance numbers at Championship Weekend, the league crossed over 100,000 fans for the season for the first time, a tribute to the players, owners, and everyone else involved in the UFA.
It’s a great achievement, but there’s also so much more to do to expose the world to the drama, passion, and excitement of ultimate frisbee. I fully expect 2026 to be even better, and I think we’re closer than ever to a big breakthrough in growing our game.
Congrats to the Boston Glory, and thank you for experiencing the 2025 UFA season along with me!
