The Ultra Advantage
The 2024 American Cornhole League regular season wrapped on July 21st. Team Ultra‘s players made some big waves this season. Let’s see how the team shapes up heading into the World Championships.
Singles
Heading into the year some big names joined Team Ultra. One of the games most talented players, Devon Harbaugh joined the team with his pro partner Kyle Malone. Along with this huge pick up, Ultra signed the reigning “King of Cornhole” Jeremiah Ellis. Big things were expected.
There were questions about Jeremiah Ellis from the jump. Many ACL players and fans wondered aloud if he would be as successful in the deeper ACL. Ellis had his first big win in Brighton, Michigan. Coming back from 18-2 Ellis bested cornhole goat Matt Guy to secure the Open 12 Singles title. The floodgates opened from there. Ellis went into the ACL’s Kickoff Battle red hot and came out with the National Singles championship and 2nd place in the Shootout Singles event. This was still only the beginning! Ellis went to Windsor, Colorado for Cornhole Mania where he qualified for the broadcast winning his brackets in Pro Singles and Pro Doubles plus Shootout Doubles. In Vegas, Ellis had a weekend. Ellis and partner Ryan Hart won the National Singles title and then Ellis capped it with a win in National Singles.
Ellis has thrown the Viper-R all season. He says the bag has made a big difference for him. The template and fabric combo works to give him the extra hole friendliness he desires. His 10.23 PPR in singles is the best of his career and he believes the bags have given him that extra edge. Going into worlds, Ellis ranks 1st overall in Pro Singles.
Devon Harbaugh has had a breakout season. Prior to coming to Ultra, Harbaugh had been called one of the most talented players in the world, but he hadn’t had that big win on tour. He got his first Open victory in Open Singles at Open 11 in West Virginia. Devon followed that up with 2 more Open championships in Singles at Opens 13 and 14 in Las Vegas and Milwaukee. He nearly pulled off a threepeat coming up just short in Canton, Ohio at Open 16. Harbaugh has been the most dominant singles player in the country this year.
Harbaugh came to Ultra after throwing a variety of bags in his career. Ultra has given him a variety of options. He won his first Open Singles title throwing Viper-R though he quickly made the switch to the Viper-X which he used not only to dominate the Open Series but also the Pro Tour where he has qualified for TV 3 times with bracket wins in Pro Doubles twice and once each in Shootout Singles and Shootout Doubles. He says the Viper-X has been a huge part of his success. The bag is perfect for his style and the herringbone slow-side has helped him to get it done when he had come up short with other bags.
Those outstanding players have been joined by Alan Rawls and Jayden Ellis as Open winners. Alan tossed the tried and true Viper to win Open 1 to start theseason while the ACl Elite player from Michigan, Jayden Ellis, took down Open 7 in a breakout performance. Ellis has been a monster on the Elite Tour with the Viper-R. Both players have leveraged the performance benefits of Ultra’s bag lineup.
We don’t want to leave out a huge year from ACL Rookie Pro Chris Roybal. He is ranked 12th in Pro Singles and he is one half of the 25th ranked Pro Doubles team. He has a combined DPR of 0.57 good for 3rd on the Pro Tour (US Pros) behind Harbaugh and Ellis. Roybal has been loving his Viper-Rs this season. He says the hybrid carpet
is perfect for his style of game allowing him to have exceptional control and true slide for his blocks. They also are flexible for when he works with his rolls, cuts, and airmails. And he says the Viper’s fast side is perfect for pushing.
Doubles
Team Ultra has carried over that success in Singles into doubles. The announcement of signing Harbaugh was paired with the signing of Kyle Malone creating a team that everyone was watching for as the season opened. Ultra brought back the dynamic duo of Chris Kingsbury and Alan Rawls for 2024. To maximize the potential of Jeremiah Ellis, he was partnered with Ryan Hart who had some big runs in 2023 including a bracket 3rd at Worlds.
The team hasn’t disappointed in 2024. Ellis and Hart won Pro Doubles at National #2 in an all-Ultra final in Las Vegas. They beat Kyle Malone and Devon Harbaugh for that title. Harbaugh and Malone won their bracket in Pro Doubles twice, once each in Windsor, CO and Philadelphia. With such solid performances from both teams they are ranked 3rd and 4th overall heading into Worlds. Not too far behind are Kingsbury and Rawls at 17th. 6 of the top 50 Pro Doubles teams this season have been throwing Ultra Bags.
Ultra has had many solid runs and bracket wins along the Open Series. And players from all over the country have been using Ultra Bags along the way.
Looking Ahead
With the World Championships beginning on August 2nd, Team Ultra has a lot of great talent ready to make runs. Behing Harbaugh in Open standings you will find Jayden Ellis at 3rd. Logan Dupler is sitting at 11th while Jeremiah Ellis is at 25th. Terry Mathis (11th), Mike Ferreira (46), Alan Rawls (50), Chris Roybal (64), and Austin Kipple (66) round out players from the team in the top 100 of Open standings. You can follow our team on our facebook page as they go for gold at the World Championships.
Don’t forget to follow our Ultra Road Trip this week as it heads to Worlds. Stops are in Phoenix, AZ, Amarillo, TX, Tulsa, OK, and Louisville, KY before arriving in Rock Hill, SC on August 1st. #UltraRoadTrip
