Wiseman and Hunrichs Top 2013 Year-End Rankings

James Wiseman and Lisa Hunrichs are the year-end number one players on the freestyle rankings for 2013.

Open: James Wiseman

Wiseman linked together strong result after strong result to add to the big points he received in 2012 for winning the FPAW Co-op title. He becomes the youngest year-end number one since the rankings launched in 1993. It was a very tight race throughout the fall among Wiseman, Jake Gauthier, Arthur Coddington and Matt Gauthier. Wiseman took a first or second in every tournament he entered in 2013

Austin: 2nd – pairs; 1st – hat
Virginia: 1st
Jammers: 1st
Boulder: 1st mobop; 1nd pairs
Potlatch: 1st
Worlds: 2nd – open pairs, 6th – open co-op

Though both Gauthiers and Coddington won titles in all their 2013 tournaments, they weren’t able to close the gap. 2014 could be a wild ride as Matt and Jake Gauthier have already made a European road trip and won Frisbeer.

1. Wiseman, James (USA) 1465 points
2. Gauthier, Jake (USA) 1421.5
3. Coddington, Arthur (USA) 1381.25
4. Kenny, Paul (USA) 1347.88
5. Gauthier, Matt (USA) 1335.5
6. Collerà, Clay (ITA) 1315.5
7. Prati, Marco (ITA) 1271.5
8. Leitner, Tom (ITA) 1246.75
9. Cesari, Manuel (ITA) 1214.75
10. Silvey, Randy (USA) 1214.5

Women: Lisa Hunrichs

Lisa Hunrichs is such a dominant force in women’s freestyle that it’s kind of shocking she hasn’t been our year-end number one since 2005. Again, the European dynamic is at play. There are more tournaments in Europe, and more of them offer mixed pairs divisions. The world championships play a big role in the rankings and an even greater one in the women’s rankings. This year Hunrichs won both the Women’s and Mixed titles at FPAW in Santa Cruz, while last year’s number one Eleonora Imazio did not compete and lost hundreds of expired points from her strong play at FPAW Prague in 2011.

1. Hunrichs, Lisa (USA) 1025 points
2. Daniels, Lori (USA) 934.5
3. Strunz, Bianca (GER) 864.5
4. Kahle, Emma (USA) 847
5. Kulisanova, Irena (CZE) 839.5
6. Imazio, Eleonora (ITA) 770.475
7. St. Mary, Cindy (USA) 738.5
8. Powell, Char (USA) 680.25
9. Simon, Ilka (GER) 627
10. Schiller, Amy (USA) 600

Previous Number Ones

Below is a list of all the year-end number one players since the rankings began. The number of ranked players is in parenthesis.

Open
2013: James Wiseman (387)
2012: Marco Prati (367)
2011: Jake Gauthier (369)
2010: Matteo Gaddoni (382)
2009: Tom Leitner (403)
2008: Tom Leitner (407)
2007: Fabio Sanna (416)
2006: Tom Leitner (413)
2005: Tom Leitner (450)
2004: Dave Lewis (435)
2003: Arthur Coddington (342)
2002: Dave Lewis (311)
2001: Dave Lewis (329)
2000: Dave Lewis (318)
1999: Dave Murphy (293)
1998: Dave Murphy (375)
1997: Arthur Coddington (501)
1996: Arthur Coddington (550)
1995: Bob Coleman (545)
1994: Larry Imperiale (469)
1993: Ted Oberhaus (267)

Women
2013: Lisa Hunrichs (61)
2012: Eleonora Imazio (66)
2011: Eleonora Imazio (65)
2010: Judith Haas (52)
2009: Eleonora Imazio (54)
2008: Eleonora Imazio (54)
2007: Eleonora Imazio (47)
2006: Mary Lowry (39)
2005: Lisa Hunrichs Silvey (44)
2004: Lisa Hunrichs Silvey (61)
2003: Cindy Kruger (61)
2002: Judy Robbins (40)
2001: Lisa Hunrichs Silvey
2000: Lisa Hunrichs Silvey (48)
1999: Judy Robbins
1998: Amy Bekken
1997: Amy Bekken
1996: Amy Bekken
1995: Amy Bekken
1994: Gina Sample

James Wiseman Takes Over The #1 Ranking

jameswisemanbtbdelay
Photo courtesy Jordan Haro and Spread The Jam Project

After the world championships, three players were locked in a very tight battle for number one – Jake Gauthier, James Wiseman and Arthur Coddington. Only 16 points separated the three.

James Wiseman struck first post-worlds by playing the Oktoberfest event. His runner up finish with Sophie Wolf was strong, but there weren’t enough entrants to boost his ranking point total. No problem, he just went to the Berlin Hat Autumn 2013 Edition, drew Tobias Burzan and Freddy Finner as his teammates and won it for 146 points. He was the leader in the clubhouse going into Beach Stylers, where both Jake and Arthur would compete. The Berlin Hat win also moved Freddy into the top 20 and Tobias into the top 80.

The math looked like winning Beach Stylers could put either Jake or Arthur on top. The math, though, was more complicated because of Beach Styler’s two divisions – pairs and turboshred. Arthur teamed up with Matt Gauthier to win pairs on the first day of the tournament, with Jake and Amy Schiller coming in a close second. The next day’s turboshred was disastrous for Arthur, where he was edged out of the final by Dave Zeff. Jake had no such problems, sailing through to the final, then winning the event. Jake accumulated 128.75 points across the two divisions, seven points short of James’ point total.

Another interesting dynamic emerged at Beach Stylers. By winning pairs and finishing second in turboshred, Matt Gauthier entered into the mix for the end-of-year number one spot. Matt has had an insane year, winning two titles at the world championships and coming less than a point away from sweeping Open Pairs, Open Co-op and Mixed Pairs. With Virginia States and Beach Stylers wins, he’s racked up dominating results. The factor keeping both Matt and Arthur 30-50 points away from James and Jake is the fact that neither played in the 2012 world championships. Their advantage in closing that gap is their 8th best result. Both of them have much weaker 8th results than James and Jake, giving them big upside for any strong tournament finish.

The 2013 rankings battle is not quite over. James has entered Lazzaroni later this month, and a Northern California turboshred event is forming around the annual post-Thanksgiving jam at Sonoma State. JikJam looms too. Strong finishes by any of the four top players could shift the end-of-year rankings picture.

2013 Austin Winter Series Open Results

2013 Austin Winter Series Open
Austin, TX
January 12-13, 2013

Open Pairs Finals
1. Jake Gauthier/Arthur Coddington [video]
2. Randy Silvey/James Wiseman [video]
3. Larry Imperiale/Ryan Young [video]
4. Toddy Brodeur/Bob Boulware [video]
5. Jonathan Willett/Bill Wright [video]
6. Dan Yarnell/Jakub Matela (Mistiq) [video]

Open Semis Pool A
1. James Wiseman/Randy Silvey
2. Bob Boulware/Toddy Brodeur
3. Bill Wright/Jonathan Willet
4. Michael Galloupe/Johnny Trevino
5. Doug Korns/John Titcomb
6. Glenn Whitlock/Lou Sumrall

Open Semis Pool B
1. Jake Gauthier/Arthur Coddington [video – Facebook login may be required]
2. Larry Imperiale/Ryan Young
3. Dan Yarnell/Jakub Matela (Mistiq)
4. Charlene Powell/Steve Hays
5. Rodney Sanchez/Bethany Sanchez
6. Charles Logan/Eric Gibbons

Hat Finals
1. James Wiseman/Matt Hull/Jonathan Willett
2. Bill Wright/Joel Rogers/Johnny Trevino
3. Ryan Young/Rodney Sanchez/Charles Logan
4. Larry Imperiale/Doug Korns/Michael Galloupe
5. Toddy Brodeur/Charlene Powell/John Titcomb
6. Jake Guathier/Jakub Matela (Mistiq)/Eric Gibbons
7. Randy Silvey/Chris Baker/Steve Hays
8. Arthur Coddington/Lou Sumrall/Bob Boulware
9. Dan Yarnell/Bethany Sanchez/Glen Whitlock