During the past weekend Mixed and Women teams from all the USA met at the 2024 USA Underwater Rugby National Championships in Coral Springs Florida, hosted by the local club Florida Inter UWR to compete and decide the National Champions for 2024.
Florida Inter won the bid to host the Nationals and celebrated this new competition at the National level with a recently updated venue that on the underwater rugby side presented a newly vinyl surfaced floor and walls for the diving/uwr pool as well as a newly rebuilt pool deck.
This years Nationals as in recent years used a 22m long and 5m deep pool making it an additional challenge for uwr teams.
On the mixed division, five teams competed on a round robin and went straight to finals 1st vs 2nd for gold and 3rd vs 4th. For bronze.
The championship started with SF Sea Bass from California playing against DC Devilrays from the Washington DC area.
The SF Sea Bass team was finally present at Nationals with full team after several years of joint participation with other clubs and started strong defeating DC by 10-0
The second game between NJ Hammerheads vs Boston Narwhals was postponed due to flight cancellations from Boston.
In one of the first games the defending champions from 2023, the NJ Hammerheads were surprised by the San Francisco Giant Sea Bass team beating them strongly 0-2. With this score the Hammerheads were urged to secure wins on the following games to get a spot in the finals.
The group ended with the undefeated SF Sea Bass on first place, and the NJ Hammerheads on 2nd after winning all the other games on their group. And securing their spot on the final game for gold.
Boston Narwhals was another great surprise with a very young team that got 3rd place over the FL Inter UWR team that got 4th place in the group. Boston Narwhals, the oldest active club in the US and is in the middle of a generational transition that most likely will be getting to their peak in the near future. A large group of very fast teenagers with some very experienced players are growing step by step on their uwr career.
On the Women division three teams competed on a double round robin format and then the first two teams will play the final game for gold.
The round robin games came with amazingly closed games between the defending champions NJ Hammerheads-W and the Colorado Mountain Chicks-W. Both games in favor of the first by 1-0 via penalty shot and 2-0. The DC Devilrays managed to play strong games but lost all of them ending on 3rd place.
On the final game for gold NJ Hammerheads and Colorado raised their team play and on a very closed game ended up with a 0-0 tie that send them to the penalty shoot-out, on which the NJ Hammerheads-W were able to hold to the National Champion title winning the shoot-out 2-1. This new Championship made the NJ hammerheads Ladies the most successful team in the US with a 3rd National Championship on the women’s division
Back to the mixed division, the final game bronze was no surprise as Boston was leading the very experienced FL Inter team by 1-0 until the last minute when a fast play from FL Inter tied the game just a few seconds before the end of the game. Unfortunately for Boston what was a strong point for them, became a weak point on a game definition by penalty shoot-out. The FL Inter team had stronger and heavier players that helped secure the Bronze medal for their team. This was the best performance for the FL Inter Team since 2022 when they also got 3rd place on the National Championships.
On the mixed final game for gold the defending Champion NJ Hammerheads were urged to get a different outcome from their first game against SF Sea Bass. The game started really strong with constant attacks on the SF basket, but SF proved to have a very strong defense during the entire championship. (no goals against in four games). On a strong attack from SF , the NJ Hammerheads had to pick up the ball from their basket once again for a 0-1 partial score, but this didn’t seem to change the game for them as the pressure on the SF basket was still constant and the goal to tie the game was closer and closer. On the second half a few minutes before the end of the game the equalizer goal came by Juan Riomaña, but a few seconds later the NJ Hammerheads saw one of their players being sent out on a time penalty for the remainder of the game. The power play was in favor of SF Sea Bass, but with only 5 men in the water the very decided Hammerheads managed to end the game with a tie, forcing the penalty shoot-out.
On the penalties the series of 3 ended on a 3-3 tie and then on the following series of individual penalties the victory came for the Hammerheads securing the gold and the 2024 National Champion Title again.
San Francisco Giant Sea Bass finished their best performance with this 2nd place after a 3rd place on the National Championships series back in 2014
For the Hammerheads this was their 8th National Championship being the most successful team in the US.
This 2024 National Championships were without a doubt the most closely decided tournament in years with both divisions going to penalty shoot-outs.
Top scorer individual awards went to Jim Holmback from SF Sea Bass on the mixed division and Carolina Osorio from NJ Hammerheads-W on the women’s division
Top scorer team was for SF Sea Bass on men’s and NJ Hammerheads-W for the women’s.
Best team defense award went to SF Sea Bass with only 1 goal against on the men’s division as well as the NJ Hammerheads-W on the women’s
Mixed division Podium
1. NJ Hammerheads
2. SF Giant Sea Bass
3. FL Inter UWR
Women’s division Podium
1. NJ Hammerheads-W
2. Colorado Mountain Chicks-W
3. DC Devilrays-W
USA Underwater Rugby - NAL LEAGUE 