Ultra Wins 2 World Championships

Pro Doubles:

The 2022 American Cornhole League World Championships turned up HUGE for Ultra Cornhole.  On Sunday 8-7-2022, Jordan Power and Jay Rubin won Ultra’s first ever Pro World Championship.  The dynamic duo methodically erased an 18 point deficit on their way to the first World Championship for Ultra in a Pro event.  Power and Rubin tossed the Ultra Widow-B in their victory.  The bags stayed true and both players found their groove, never giving up while down 20-2!  Rubin has used the Widow-B most of the season and his ability to place bags and hit big shots fits well with that bag. Power has worked back and forth with Viper in singles but is just as confident throwing the Widow-B in doubles winning an Open in Las Vegas with them (with Rubin).

Mixed Doubles:

Following that improbable win, Team Ultra’s Daniela Luna teamed with fellow Great Lakes Conference player, Mark Richards, and they threw Ultra Viper–C bags to victory in Mixed Doubles. The Viper-C is Daniela’s favorite bag. She used the extra control offered in the bag to stay true throughout the match as they captured Ultra’s second World Championship of the weekend!  This was a big moment for Daniela who has grinded all season. She had previously made a broadcast in Seattle at a Pro Shootout but this was by far her defining achievement on her rookie season.

Big Wins:

You may ask, hasn’t Ultra won a World Championship before?  That answer is yes. Jordan, Jay and Daniela join Bill Hadley and Cheyenne Renner who won World Championships in 2021 throwing Ultra.  What makes this one special though is that Jordan and Jay won arguably one of the 2 most prestigious World Championships topping the entire Pro Doubles field.   Congratulations to Jordan, Jay and Daniela on their big wins and bringing those championships to Team Ultra.

USA Cornhole:

Also at Worlds, Ultra had themselves a Week!  Kicking it off on July 31^st, Jeremy Schermerhorn and Derek Singleton won USA Cornhole’s National Championship.  They worked their way through a rounders format followed by a bracket enroute to their first USA Cornhole National Championship.  The week continued strong with Ultra bags being used by many players in the Intermediate and Competitive divisions. Ultra’s heavy hitters showed up on Tuesday in full force for Women’s Singles.  Team Ultra’s Katlyn Hamm took her first big steps in the ACL finishing an impressive 5^th overall and second in her bracket.  If not for a scoring error, she may have put Ultra on the big stage!  We expect to see big things from Katlyn as she is part of a huge youth movement and the accelerated growth of the Women’s division that was on full display at the World Championships.

World Championships Wrap Up:

Wednesday, the week really got going.  In Senior Doubles, Steve Schroeder and Tom Walter won their bracket.  Their run put them on the main stage later in the week.  There they took on Damon Dennis and Philip Haydon for the championship and came up just short in their efforts.  What a run they had though!  Fellow Team Ultra players Bagin’ Bill Hadley and Big Time Bob Vonch notched a 2^nd in their bracket as did Team Ultra’s Terry Mathis.  In Women’s doubles, also on Wednesday, Daniela Luna and Wendy Sehlmeyer came up just short of the finals, finishing second in their bracket.  Later that evening, Team Ultra had a couple of nominees for the ACL’s Stevie Awards.  These are the season ending awards recognizing achievements by Pro Players, Open Players, Directors, and Staff.  Doug Zafft was up for Breakout Player of the Year while Eric Tscherne was nominated for the ACL’s Pro Leadership Award. Neither player won, but both nominations are new for the team and signal recognition of players from the West. 

Thursday Mixed Doubles kicked off the day.  Daniela Luna, teaming with Mark Richards, secured a trip to ESPN later in the week with a strong showing Thursday morning.  Together they navigated some of the best players in the world in this unique event that pairs male and female players together.  New teams are formed as this event only occurs once in the ACL’s Pro Season.  Team Ultra’s Doug Zafft teamed with Yetty Irwan and they finished second in their bracket narrowly missing a shot at an ESPN game.  

Pro Singles:

Pro Singles was later that afternoon.  Team Ultra was flexing everywhere.  Tanner Halbert and Noah Almanza took second in their brackets.  There were incredible runs when you consider that all 4 brackets were won by the #1 seeds.  One of the more impressive things we saw was Team Ultra’s Ty Lopez showing out on the biggest stage, winning matches against some of the game’s biggest names.  His incredible run took him to 3^rd where he lost to eventual bracket champion Alex Rawls.  We also want to recognize the return of Tyler Parent!  Re-armed with Ultra’s Vipers, Tyler got his game right and finished an impressive 6^th place in his bracket, notching some eye popping wins along the way.

Pro Doubles:

Friday opened early with Pro Doubles.  We know Jordan Power and Jay Rubin won.  Other Team Ultra Pro Doubles teams had some great runs to go along with that Ultra World Championship.  Tanner Halbert and EZ, Eric Zocklein, finished 3^rd overall winning their bracket.  They faced off with Power and Rubin in the semi finals on ESPN.  Jeremy Frazier and Dave Sutton collected a 4^th place bracket finish.  The return of Tyler Parent and Brevon Valdivia got Ultra a 5^th place bracket finish in a battle with Arizona’s Pedro Zazueta Jr. and Ty Lopez who finished 6^th.  In the Pro Blind Draw that afternoon, Kevin Nellis partnered with Jordan Kimbrell for a bracket second.  Jordan Power drew fellow Team Ultra player, Pedro Zazueta Jr and they took a 3^rd in their bracket. Thursday was a long day for the pro players.

ACL Teams:

Saturday brought out the first ever Teams final.  Teams is a format that was new for the 2021-22 season.  Players were drafted into 16 Teams creating new pairings for players and a whole new excitement around the game. Each Team fielded 7 doubles pairs who faced off against the other squad’s doubles pairs. The Team taking 4 out of 7 games wins the match.  in the Championship match, Brandon Sehlmeyer hit a shot that will go down in history!  To stay alive in the game and match, Brandon  tossed an airmail dragging a must-have, off-side bag, with some voodoo magic in his Viper-R bags. This kept the Woodchucks in both the game and the match that they eventually won! Joining Brandon on the Woodchucks were Team Ultra’s Kevin Nellis and Wendy Sehlmeyer. The electricity in the air as the Woodchucks battled the Gushers was amazing.  That shot caused the crowd to erupt as they teams battled for $40,000.00!!! 

Ultra Advanced:

Saturday also saw the Advanced Singles bracket.  Advanced Singles was crazy, 16 brackets and over 800 players!  New Team Ultra player, Jayden Ellis from Michigan took the stage by storm winning his bracket and finishing 5^th overall.  Idaho’s Mario Estrada, also a Team Ultra player, took a bracket 2^nd.  We had several Team Ultra Advanced players in the field putting on good performances throughout the 16 brackets!   If that wasn’t enough,  taking place all day on Saturday was USA Cornhole’s Junior Championships.  Zackary Stickney of Team Ultra took Silver in singles.  Meanwhile, Jayden Ellis broke out with his partner Evan Vanos for a Gold in Doubles!

It was an incredible week of cornhole for Team Ultra. Big Wins, Big Runs, 2 USA Cornhole Championships and 2 ACL World Championships capped it all off.  We are looking forward to the 2022-23 season and seeing what Team Ultra can do!

Full Results are available here: American Cornhole League World Championships 2022 Results.