Tumeke Prove 'Too Much' for Opposition

The 2012 US Touch Nationals were recently held in San Francisco, California, with USA Touch extremely pleased with the increasing standard of Touch on display, and the fantastic sportsmanship of all participants.The Men's Open division has been a two horse race since 2008 with Tumeke and Portland playing in each of the MO finals. Both teams proved too strong for Bay Area and Manhattan Beach, but the level of competition is so much stronger than it has been in the past. Any team could have won this division, but the final saw Portland and Tumeke meet for the 4th straight final. Portland started very strong racing out to a 4-0 lead early. Tumeke was able to pull back a couple of touchdowns before the half left the game at 6-2. Portland started the second half strong to take the lead to 7-2. That score seemed to shift Tumeke into another gear, but the 3 time MO champions from Portland were able to hold out to take the final 9-7 avenging 2 losses in the past two tournaments to take the Championship back to Portland for the 4th time.As with the MO competition, the level of play in the Mixed Open division was more even than it's ever been. The proof was seen in the biggest upset in a number of years when the 2 time defending champions, Galaxy of San Diego lost their first game at Nationals in several years in a pool game. The upstart Stanford Sharks from the San Francisco Bay Area upended Galaxy in a closely competed game 5-4. On the other side of the draw, 3 time semi finalists Tumeke finished top of their division. Visiting from South America was a very energetic and exciting Chile team with pace and fitness to burn. Both Pools crossed over with results putting Tumeke playing Galaxy and New York playing Stanford Sharks. In two of the closest and most competitive games in recent MXO history, Tumeke was able to knock off the San Diego based team 8-6 ending two years of Galaxy dominance. The Stanford Sharks came up against a hot New York team looking to make their first final, but Stanford was able to hold New York off to make their second final in 3 years. The final was a one sided affair as Tumeke looked to finish their undefeated run to the finals and win their first MXO championship to accompany their 2 MO championships. The Mens 35 competition saw the defending champions from Palm Beach, Florida come through pool games undefeated. Finishing first saw them get the easier of the semi finals after the round robin with Stanford playing Tumeke in the other semi in a rematch of a game that saw Stanford come away as winners 7-5 in the pool round robin. At the end of 40 minutes both teams were locked in an 8 all draw. Heading into the drop off, it seemed that whichever team could remain standing would win the game. Having won the toss, Tumeke had the ball first and were able to score after a minute of play. With the right to respond, both teams had dropped to 5 players. Stanford had a chance on the goal line but an errant pass gave the game to Tumeke and a presence in each of the 3 division finals for the Tumeke Touch club. The final was all one way traffic in the first half with Tumeke running out to a 4-1 advantage before Palm Beach pulled one back before the half. Coming into the second half 2 behind, Palm Beach seemed to up the intensity and showed their superior fitness coming out winners 5-4 to collect the newly branded Nate Fekete/Brad Wear Memorial Trophy and take their second M35 championship back to Florida. USA Touch has seen the level of play increase immensely since taking 4 teams to the 2011 World Cup in Scotland. The brain child of former USA Touch president Jeff Woods to take as many players as could make the trip, no matter their experience was proven well worth the risk as those players who represented Palm Beach, New York, Atlanta, Bay Area and Manhattan Beach saw those areas make impressive jumps in the level of their play. Congratulation goes out to the winners of all 3 divisions and as we look forward to 2013 where we will return to the ESPN Wide World of Sports facility on the Disney World campus in Orlando, Florida for the 2013 USA Touch Nationals that will also double as an International Invitational to be held from the 2nd through the 6th of October 2013.

Pictures from the tournament will be posted shortly.

Finals ResultsMENS OPENPortland Hunters (9) def Tumeke (7)MIXED OPENTumeke (7) def Stanford Sharks (3)MENS 35sPalm Beach (5) def Tumeke (4)

* Thanks to OJ Hawea from US Touch for this article