The Ultimate Hall of Fame is pleased to announce the slate of player-candidates selected for consideration for the 2026 Hall of Fame class. This year, ten player-candidates were elevated as finalists from the Women’s division, ten player-candidates were elevated from the Open division, and eight player-candidates from the Mixed division.

Five Contributor-Product Innovator candidates were also elevated as finalists. The 28 player-candidates and 5 contributor candidates advance to the next stage of the 2026 Ultimate Hall of Fame selection process.

Congratulations to these Ultimate Hall of Fame (HoF) finalists and all the nominees. It is indeed a high honor to be nominated and selected from the respective Open, Women’s division, and Mixed division Peer Pools, as well as the Contributor category selection process. This year’s player-candidates include those who competed at their best against the best in their primary division of play during the 2010 to 2018 peak playing years. The Contributor candidates’ impact was focused on 2010 and earlier.

Candidate-submitted player competitive histories and photos are included below.

WOMEN’S DIVISION:

Amber Sinicrope

Anne (Mercier) Boulanger 

Hana Kawai

Katherine Wooten

Leila Tunnell

Maggie Ruden

Octavia ‘Opi’ Payne

Rohre Titcomb

Sarah Itoh

Val Dion

OPEN DIVISION:

Tim Gehret

Jeff Graham

Morgan Hibbert

Jared Inselmann

Ashlin Joye

Mike Natenberg

Moses Rifkin

Joel Schlachet

Mac Taylor

Ben Wiggins

MIXED DIVISION:

Sarah Carnahan

Alicia Carr

Josh ‘Shwa’ Hemmesch

James Hron

Paige Kercher

Sean Murray

Jeff Smith

An-Chi Tsou

CONTRIBUTOR CATEGORY:

Five Ultimate – The Titcomb Siblings

Score Reporter – Rodney Jacobson

UltiPhotos – Kevin Leclaire

UltiVilleage – Rob Baril

VC Ultimate – Adriana Withers

The next steps in the HoF Selection Process includes the Call to Community, which will take place in late July 2026. The Ultimate community will be invited to share their commentary on the 2026 Slate.

From the final slate of 10 Open, 10 Women’s division, 8 Mixed division player candidates, and 5 Contributor candidates, the eligible voting members of the Hall will cast their ballots for up to 5 Open division, up to 5 Women’s division, and up to 4 Mixed division players in 2 rounds of voting to select those individuals to be inducted into the Ultimate Hall of Fame. The Contributor candidates will be included only in the final ballot and all are eligible to be inducted. All final ballot player-candidates and contributors must achieve a 2/3rds majority to be inducted into the Hall. The Hall member vote will be held in early August with the 2026 Hall inductees announced ahead of the Labor Day holiday.

Thanks to the Hall of Fame Vetting Committee

Suzanne Fields, Hall Administrator & Vetting Committee Chair

Women’s division Peer Pool Co-leaders: Gwen Ambler, Katey Forth, Carolyn Finney

Open division Peer Pool Co-leaders: Bart Watson, Jim Parinella, Greg Husak, Alex Ghesquiere & Kurt Gibson

Mixed division Peer Pool Co-leaders: Kendra Frederick, Emily Smith-Wilson, & Kevin Seiler

Contributor Co-leaders: Henry Thorne & David Barkan