CanAm – USA Underwater Rugby

The second edition of the CanAm UW Rugby Championships ended with the victory of the Quincy Narwhals from Boston during an undefeated weekend. The team from Boston came back strong after their absence from a couple of tournaments of the North American league.

After the successful first edition that had as one of the highlights the participation of Club Orcas from Colombia with three teams, this time CanAm was expecting participation of three Colombian teams including Orcas, Quelonios and Pirañas but at the end such teams declined the invitation. However the tournament had the international participation of Team Canada (mixed team from Camo Montreal and Club Liberation from Toronto) as part of their preparation for the 2015 World Championships to be held in Colombia.

Participants on the 2015 US National team tryouts

Four teams participated as representatives from the US. Quincy Narwhals from Boston, New Jersey Hammerheads and NUWR from Newark New Jersey and the ROW team (rest of the world) team with players from different areas of the US without a club including Wisconsin, Illinois, DC and California.

The game for the 3rd place was played by Team Canada and the NJ Hammerheads, with the victory of the Canadians for 7-2 over a weakened NJ Hammerheads who played the same Team Canada earlier that same day defeating the Canadians on the round robin 3-1.

The final game between Quincy Narwhals and NUWR was a very intense and interesting game which was only decided on the last seconds of the game. Quincy had 11 players between experienced and new players including an experienced Swedish player and took advantage of the number of players to defeat NUWR. The team from Newark had only 7 players but made the size en depth of the pool to play in their favor as well as the speed and fitness of their players.

The game was tied 1-1 by half time and just 2 second before the end of the game one last attempt from the Boston ended on a last second goal for Quincy to win the tournament.

The tournament also served as the first event for the US National team tryouts for the 2015 World Championship to be held in Cali, Colombia. The US men’s team tryout had the participation of 24 players under the direction of US National coach Jose Echeverry.

FInal standings:

1- Quincy Narwhals

2- Newark NUWR

3- Team Canada

4- New Jersey Hammerheads

5- Row Team

Top Scorer:

1- Daniel Lopez – NUWR 12

2- Filip Mundt – Quincy 7

3- Mike Picot- Quincy 6

Mateo Galeano – NJ hammerheads 6

Tim Burke – Quincy 6

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

USA Underwater Rugby – NAL LEAGUE

NORTH AMERICAN LEAGUE UWR

Tag: CanAm

2015 CanAm UW Rugby Tournament Results and Team USA tryouts

2014 CANAM MIDWESTERN CHAMPIONSHIPS – UNDERWATER RUGBY