The 2014 edition of the CanAm Midwestern Championship was an excellent success. For the first time CMC’s featured Underwater Rugby as a new and exciting sport on this edition and hopefully in the years ahead.

Played on the diving pool from the Walter Schroeder Aquatic Center, despite the length of the playing area, the pool was an excellent venue for the sport with 16 feet deep and goals at the bottom against the wall.

The Underwater Rugby competition featured both club and mixed teams from the US including the New Jersey Hammerheads, The Orphans (mixed team from Florida, DC, and TX), Team X (mixed team from CA, WI, MI) and international participation from Team Orcas from Medellin Colombia, participating with 3 teams (Orcas A, Orcas B with junior players and Orcas C with mostly experienced players)
The tournament for the six participating teams was design on one division with two Round Robins for Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and final games played on Sunday afternoon based on the positions from the Round Robin final chart.

Orcas B team, a mostly junior player team from Colombia, improved their performance after the first round robin, finishing the second round robin games with better scores in all the games. Team X the mixed team with both new and experienced players from California, Wisconsin and Michigan ended up on 5th position. The Orphans Team with players from Florida, Texas and a few players from Colombian clubs got fourth place.

The New Jersey Hammerheads got third place against The Orphans team. During the two round robin games, they tied 1-1 and lost on the second game 1-3 against the Orphans team. But on the final game New Jersey won 3-2 in very exciting game, taking the bronze.

The final game was played between Orcas A and Orcas C teams from Colombia. Orcas C defeated Orcas A in a very close and exciting final game by 1-0.
All the teams were really happy with the organization, the pool and the venue. Each team got a great number of games (11 games during the 3 days of tournament). And the underwater Rugby Community in the US and Canada is looking forward to participate in future CanAm Tournaments.
The final rankings below:

FINAL TOURNAMENT POSITIONS
1st Place – Orcas C (Medellin, Colombia)
2nd Place – Orcas A (Medellin, Colombia)
3rd Place – New Jersey Hammerheads (NJ)
4th Place – The Orphans (FL, TX, DC)
5th Place – Team X (CA, WI, MI, MA, QB)
6th Place – Orcas B (Medellin, Colombia)

BEST DEFENSE:
1ST Place – Orcas C – 7 goals against
2nd Place – Orcas A – 11 goals against
3rd Place – New Jersey – 12 goals against

TOP SCORER TEAM:
1ST Place – New Jersey – 42 goals
2nd Place – Orcas C – 40 goals
3rd Place – Orphans – 36 goals

TOP SCORER PLAYER:
1ST Place – Daniel Lopez – New Jersey – 19 goals
2nd Place – Julian Muriel – Orphans – 14 goals
3rd Place – Juan Tejada – Orcas C – 10 goals
Ramiro Barona – Orphans – 10 goals