Colorado Springs, Colo. (April 20, 2017) – USA Ultimate, the national governing body for the sport of ultimate in the United States and proud member of the U.S. Olympic Committee, is pleased to extend invites to 29 additional athletes to attend tryouts for the 2018 U.S. U-24 National Teams.
In January, invites were sent to 180 athletes – 90 men and 90 women – of the more than 550 athletes who applied. The coaches reserved 10 spots at each tryout to be awarded at their discretion based largely on athletes’ performances during the 2017 college season. Several additional invites were extended as necessary to fill spots that were vacated due to injuries, conflicts, etc. In all, USA Ultimate expects 100 men and 100 women to try out for the U-24 National Teams across two tryout weekends.
Tryouts will be held in June: the first in Columbus, Ohio, June 17-18, and the second the following weekend, June 24-25, in Denver. Roster selections will be made by the three teams’ coaching staffs, with the input of selection assistants and members of the USA Ultimate staff. The teams’ head coaches and assistant coaches were announced last fall.
Those trying out will be competing for spots on either the men’s, mixed or women’s national teams that will compete at the World Flying Disc Federation’s World Under-24 Ultimate Championships to be held January 7-13, 2018, in Perth, Australia.
Men’s Tryouts
name – college
- Matt Carter – George Mason
- Dylan DeClerck – Iowa, Drake
- Martin Espinoza – Cal State-Fullerton
- Jake Fella – Purdue
- Ryan Hiser – Florida
- Robert Korbel – Puget Sound
- Phillip Korolog – Colorado College
- Nico Lake – Georgetown
- Andrew McKelvey – Central Florida
- Jacob Rovner – Case Western Reserve
- Casey Shugarman – California-Davis
- Jake Steslicki – Michigan
- Jordan Taylor – New Hampshire
- Alan Villanueva – Air Force
- Nolan Walsh – Stanford
Women’s Tryouts
name – college
- Mary (MK) Andersen – Notre Dame
- Abigail Bomberger – Pittsburgh
- Michelle Carey – Georgetown
- Kaci Cessna – Colorado State
- Frances Gellert – Colorado College
- Laura Gerencser – Texas
- Alison Griffith – California
- Jacqueline Martinez – Harvard
- Elisabeth Parker – North Carolina
- Corinn Pruitt – Ohio State
- Sarah Russek – Pittsburgh
- Julia Schmaltz – Texas
- Emilie Willingham – Truman State
- Megan Wilson – Tufts
