National Championships Up Next for Nationally Ranked Emporia State Disc Golf

Disc Golf | 3/31/2025 3:04:00 PM

Collegiate Disc Golf
#1 Emporia State Hornet Women
& #4 Emporia State Men
at Collegiate National Championship
Wednesday-Saturday, April 2-5 
Winthrop University • Rock Hill, S.C..
Results: www.pdga.com/tour/events
Complete Notes in pdf

CHAMPIONS CROWNED IN APRIL
Emporia State has qualified four squads for the Disc Golf Collegiate National Championships in Rock Hill, S.C. Atlanta Krueger and Madeline Joiner are the top ranked women's team in the nation while Justin Farrell, Cade Kohlmeier, TJ Reel, and Micah Tatro are ranked fourth nationally.
Individually Kruger is the top ranked female, Joiner is ranked #6, Maya Ringgold is ranked #29 and Rebekah Thompson is ranked #35 making Emporia State the only school with four players in the top 35 nationally.
For the men Reel is ranked #13, Isaiah Esquivel is ranked #38, Farrell is #45 and Tatro is ranked #57 nationally.  Emporia State joins Texas A&M and UNC-Charlotte as the only schools with four players ranked in the top 60 nationally
 
THE COACH
Eric McCabe is the first coach in the history of the Emporia State competitive disc golf team. An Emporia native and the 2010 PDGA World Champion, McCabe led both the men and women to top five finishes last season with the women placing third and the men fifth. He led the Hornet men to a national runner-up finish in their first year while the women placed 16th nationally.
From 2001-16 McCabe won 84 PDGA sanctioned events with 173 top three finishes.He has five top-25 finishes in PDGA World Championship competition, 13 top-25 finishes in other majors, and placed in the top-25 of 54 National Tour events during his career.

THE FORMAT
After practice rounds during the day on Monday and Tuesday, the Opening Celebration will be held on Tuesday evening at Winthrop Coliseum.
Discs start flying on Wednesday at 7:30 a.m. with men's DI and DII-B singles, DII and DIII Team rounds and the women's singles.  The women's Final 9 is set to tee off at 3:00 p.m. The groups will flip on Thursday with men's DI and DII-B, women's team, DII and DIII single rounds in the morning and the men's DI singles Final 9 set for 3:30 pm. Friday will see all team competition with the final team rounds set to begin on Saturday morning. 

ABOUT THE HORNETS
The Emporia State women are ranked #1 in the nation and the men are #4 nationally in the College Disc Golf Power Rankings heading into the National Championships.
Individually the Hornet women have four players ranked in the top 35 nationally. As a team they have five podium finishes and four wins in five events this season.
Atlanta Kruger and Madeline Joiner make up the #1 ranked team in the nation. Kruger is the top ranked player in the nation with four podiums and two wins in four events this year. Joiner is sixth in the nation and also has four podiums and two wins in four events this year. Maya Ringgold is ranked #29 nationally with one podium appearance in four events. Rebekah Thompson comes in ranked #35 in the nation with one time on the podium in four events. Grace Watson has one podium in three events to come in at #45 in the nation. Avangelena Campbell is ranked #65 to round out the six Emporia State women at the national championships.
The Hornet men have four podiums finishes in five events this year with two championships. Four of their players are ranked in the top 60 nationally.
TJ Reel, Justin Farrell, Micah Tatro and Cade Kohlmeier make up the #4 ranked DI Team. Reel is the top ranked Hornet at #13 in the nation with one win in four events this season.  Isaiah Esquivel is ranked #38 with two podiums in three events and leads the DII team this weekend. Farrell is ranked #45 in the nation while Tatro has two podiums in four events to rank #57 nationally. Grant Yoder is ranked #131 and Kohlmeier is ranked #163 in the nation. 

SCOUTING THE FIELD
The top five women's teams at the national championships are Emporia State at #1 followed by Liberty, Clemson, Arizona State and North Carolina-Charlotte. Liberty won last year's national championship with Clemson finishing second and the Hornets third.
For the men Texas A&M is the top ranked team followed by North Carolina-Charlotte, Oregon State, Emporia State at #4 and Oklahoma Christian at #5.  UNC-Charlotte won last year's championship with Emporia State finishing fifth.

AT LAST YEAR'S NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS
The Emporia State disc golf program is in it's second year and the men's DI program just picked up it's second top five finish while the women's team finished in third at the Collegiate Disc Golf National Championships in Rock Hill, S.C.
 
The ESU Black team of Atlanta Krueger and Maya Ringgold shot six under on the final day to finish at -7 for the championship and in third place in the women's competition. The Gold team of Rebekah Thompson and Sydney Snowden finished in 15th place with a combined score of +33 over the four day championships. There were a total of 34 teams competing in the women's field with 28 of them representing colleges.

Emporia State's team of Isaiah Esquivel, Justin Farrell, TJ Reel and Cade Kohlmeier shot five under on Saturday for a four day total of -22 to place fifth in the DI men's competition. There were 48 teams in the DI men's field.

The foursome of Abram Brazzle, Caden Stucky, Zachary Dyer and Grant Yoder had the best round of the DII men's competition on Saturday as they shot a blistering -14 highlighted by an ace on #10. They would go eight under on the back nine to finish -23 for the championship and 11th overall in the DII field.  After the ace on #10 they were briefly in first place while the other teams were behind them on the course. There were 80 teams in the men's DII competition.