The 2008 UPA National Championship are Complete

And Wisconsin, not Florida, will get to add another one of these.....

2006, Florida
2007, Wisconsin

2008, Wisconsin does it again, taking down Florida 15-9

The 2008 UPA National Championships

A couple months back, this blog made it known Joe Kershner, the demon of the desert, was blasting all over the college Ultimate scene. Some college blogs, looking to follow the lead of this blog, hopped on board and made similar posts and remarks. Well, needless to say, this blog had it right.

The Arizona Sunburn's frontman was being touted as one of the best in the nation. Doing more (making Quarters at Nationals) with far less of a supporting cast, Kershner was crowned today as the nation's top player, the Callahan Award winner.

Congrats to Kershner, as he his now immortalized in Ultimate history.

In other National Championship news, the Great Lakes has had a moderately disappointing weekend. Michigan, the Pool D #1 seed started on a stellar note dropping their first Friday game to Georgia....whoops. Michigan rallied to take the next two games (Texas and Harvard) and put themselves in position to play early in the Pre-Quarters round on Saturday.

Illinois, playing in Pool A, also had a less then memorable Friday. Yea, they were supposed to lose to Florida. And they beat Delaware like they were supposed to, but the loss to North Texas sure didn't help things for the Great Lakes. Not only did it give Illinois a losing record on Day 1, but oh whammy, it pitted the two GL teams against each other in the Pre-Quarter round on Saturday.

Though many Ghetto players picked Michigan (correctly) to take down Illinois for the GL Championships....most didn't see the Illinois revenge comeback coming to fruition at the Championships. Needless to say, Illinois has gone from nearly losing the Sectional Championship game to North Park, to working their way to 2nd place at Regionals, to grinding it through to the Quarters at the National Championships. Where, while facing Colorado sans Beau, they put up a strong effort in a 15-12 loss.

Which left Colorado to face Wisconsin and Florida against Carleton in the two Semis. Textbook? Predictable? What other word can you use? It all played out to plan like clockwork. Wisconsin took their game 15-10 and Florida made quick work in a 15-6 routing. Leaving us an '06 Championships Final rematch. With then Callahan Tim Gehret leading Florida in '06, and Dan Heijman leading the Hodags last year, both finalist squads are in the 'ship without their respective Callahan winner (which probably has surprised more than just Rook and Florida).

No difference, it'll be the best game of the tournament, and I'll just come out and say it right now, best game of the year.

You heard it hear first....no matter what any other college blog writes.