2023 Roster
The following players have signed for the 2023 season!
Click on a picture to learn more about a player and their ultimate career.
#00 Genny De Jesus (she/her)
Genny has been part of NYGL since 2019 - she is excited for another year with the team, but mostly just another year with Amy.
#14 Tulsa Douglas (she/her)
Tulsa started playing ultimate in Amherst, MA and continued at St. Olaf college where she captained her team to a DIII national title. Tulsa played on the 2018 U24 USA women's national team and currently plays for Brute Squad winning a national championship in 2019. Tulsa is a co-host of the podcast Share the Air, enjoys dogs, playing pickleball, and being outside. She is working on her MEd. in sport and exercise psychology.
#28 Angela Zhu (she/her)
Angela started playing ultimate in Amherst, MA and continued at Dartmouth college where she captained her team to a DI national title. Angela played on the 2012 and 2014 U20 USA teams, 2018 and 2019 U24 USA teams, and was part of the 2020 mixed WUGC team. She currently plays for Brute Squad and coaches the Northeastern Huskies.
# 26 Cara Sieber (she/her)
Cara started playing ultimate in Cincinnati on her dad’s summer league team in 2014, along with her two older brothers. Cara quickly loved the sport, playing on her high school team and YCC team, Cincinnati Belle, before playing with Ohio State Fever from 2016-2021. Other notable teams Cara played for are: 2016 USA u20 Girls National Team, 2019 USA u24 Women's National Team, Cincinnati Steamboat, Columbus Cocktails, and Columbus Pride. Cara also helped start and coach a local Columbus high school team.
Cara moved to NYC in September 2022 and is looking forward to representing New York Gridlock in the PUL.
#88 Nicole “Nikki” Hair (she/her)
Nicole Hair grew up in a family that revolved around sports. Having 11 siblings made it so there was always enough people for a game of soccer. She started her ultimate career playing at Drew University, her love for beach ultimate helped grow her passion for the sport, she currently plays club for NY XIST, and is very excited to play her 5th year on NY Gridlock.
#4 Nastasia “Stazi” Tangherlini (she/her)
Stazi started playing in 2011 for the University of Chicago. She has since played for Chicago Dish, Nemesis, NY BENT and Boston Brute Squad. She is a retired college coach but still enjoys working with players new to the sport.
#83 Zoe Hecht (she/her)
Zoe is from a happy little frisbee family. she loves sports and sunshine and her friends. she's good at listening but not that good at thinking inside her own head. zoe hates all new york sports teams except this one! go sox
#33 Emily “JT” Barrett (she/her)
Emily found ultimate her sophomore year at Ohio State where she eventually went on to captain Fever for 3 seasons. She played in the mixed club division for Columbus Cocktails from 2018-2021 and played for Columbus Pride from 2019-2021. Emily also helped start and coach a mixed team at a local high school in Columbus, OH.
#12 Amy Zhou (she/her)
Amy started playing ultimate at Rutgers University and continues to play with that Metro East chip on her shoulder. Her least favorite part about playing in the PUL is getting subbed off in the middle of a point for the O-line. Her favorite part is everything else.
#1 Anna Wysen (she/her)
Anna grew up in Seattle and made history when she scored the first-ever goal in an elementary school ultimate game. She continued her frisbee career at UC Berkeley, where, as a freshman, Anna earned national Freshman of the Year runner-up (2016). After college, she played two mixed club seasons with DC Rally and two women's club seasons with NYC BENT.
#15 Elizabeth "Eliza" Mosquera Aguilar (she/her)
Elizabeth Mosquera Aguilar, a player for Club Deportivo Revolution, began her Ultimate career at the Escuelas Populares del Inder in Medellín. Her first World’s was in the junior division in 2010 in Germany, where her athleticism stood out and she was recognized as the best junior player.
Her first club team was Wicca from the city of Medellín, she then joined and still plays with Revolution who won the World Championship in 2022.
In 2019 Revolution won the PUL championship and Elizabeth was chosen as the MVP, making her mark as one of the fastest players in the World.
For 2 continuous years, she also participated in Track competitions, obtaining individual medals in the 100-meter, 200-meter, and 400-meter races.
She has been part of the mixed WG Colombian Selection in 2013, 2017 and 2022.
She is currently a Professional Sports student at the Jaime Isaza Cadavid Polytechnic in Medellín and works as a personalized physical trainer mostly with Ultimate Frisbee players.
#96 Nina Finley (she/her)
Nina has been playing way too much frisbee since she joined the Seattle Academy Cardinals at the age of 12. She co-founded and captained Seattle Fryz for six years with her best friends and competed on Team USA at the World Junior Ultimate Championships in 2010 and 2012. She spent her rookie year with Ohio State Fever and captained the Whitman Sweets to a second-place Division 1 finish at college nationals. Nina worked abroad as a disease ecologist for years, picking up with every frisbee team she encountered, and joined the London mixed club Deep Space for COVID times. For work, Nina conducts research alongside rainforest communities with the non-profit Health In Harmony.
#52 Sydney "Squid" Harris (she/her)
Squid started playing ultimate in college and has played for some years in the North Carolina before recently moving to New York and playing NY Bent. This is her first season on Gridlock.
#19 Braanah “HB” Craig (she/her)
HB started playing ultimate at USF Tampa in 2014 where she played for 5 years and then coached for a year after graduation. She has played on NJ Pine Baroness, FL Tabby Rosa and Tampa Bay Mutiny. Most recently, she participated in the inaugural Con10ent tour. When she's not playing ultimate, HB is a software engineer at a startup in NYC.
#03 Abby Cheng (she/her)
Abby started playing ultimate in NYC and went on to play with and captain the Oberlin College Preying Manti, who won the 2019 D-III National title (the first athletic national title in Oberlin's history). In the club division, Abby has played with NY BENT and XIST. Abby played on the USA U24 National Women's Team in 2019, and she received the 2020 Donovan Award. She currently plays for the Bard College Big Bird. Abby is looking forward to her second season with NY Gridlock!
#07 Luisa Neves (she/her)
Luisa started playing ultimate with the University of Rochester EZs, and since then has played with club teams such as Brooklyn Book Club, New York BENT, and most recently, New York XIST. In 2022, she was named to the USA's WBUC Mixed National Team. Luisa has played with New York Gridlock since its inaugural season, and is excited to return for the 2022 season!
#9 Becky Malinowski (she/her)
Becky started playing ultimate in 2007 at the University of Michigan. For club, she played 2 years for Boston Slow and 10 years since then with Boston Brute Squad. Becky also coached Tufts Ewo from 2012 to 2020.
#66 Janine Hlavaty (she/her)
Janine started playing ultimate when her siblings gave her an ultimatum to either play frisbee or be the least favorite child in the family. 8 years later and she has had the privilege of playing on teams such as Jughandle, BENT, and NYGL for their inaugural season. Along with playing, she's been coaching her alumni team Rutgers Nightshade for 5 years and coaches the NJ YCC U20 DEVYL Womxn's team for the past 2 years. Janine is super excited to be back with NYGL for the 2023 season.
#11 Nola Kim-Mayer (she/her)
Nola began playing Ultimate in high school, where she competed with her high school and state Youth Club teams. She played at the DIII College level with Vassar College, where she captained her team to its first ever DIII College Nationals appearance in 2021. She has played three club seasons in the mixed division, including most recently, in 2022, with New York XIST. This is her second season with NYGL.
#64 Tracey Lum (she/her)
Tracey started playing ultimate in 2010 at Stuyvesant High School in NYC. Since then she's played for the Northeastern Valkyries in college, Last Call, Mixed Nuts, Boston Siege, and most recently BENT. Outside of the frisbee world she is a software engineer with too many hobbies like drawing, pottery, and hanging out with her dog Tina.
#18 Caitlyn Hauswirth (she/her)
Caitlyn started playing ultimate after quitting the track team at University of Hartford in 2009 and has been commuting in from CT for XIST since its first season in 2017. Truly actually addicted to getting up before 5am, she fills her day with CrossFit, running, and treating patients as a pelvic health and orthopedic physical therapist. Caitlyn is excited to play with a team where there is officially someone there to answer injury questions that isn't her.
#08 Kelly “Beezus” Hyland (she/her)
Kelly was first introduced to ultimate while studying abroad at University College Cork, Ireland. Since that time she has had the privilege to play on a handful of Irish National Teams, including the European Championship winning women's team in 2019. Kelly was selected for the 2022 WBUC USA Mixed National Team (RIP). Kelly spends her non-frisbee time with her dog, Rascal, and human, Luke.
#27 Akina "Aki" Younge (she/they)
Aki started playing ultimate frisbee in 2007 with Yale Ramona. Her sister was captain of the team and Aki quickly found a community and home with Mona. Aki continued to play club with Bashing Piñatas (NY tri-state mixed), Brute Squad (Boston women's), Underground (Seattle women's), Scandal (DC women's), but her longest tenures have been with her beloved teams Revolution (Medellín women's) and BENT (NYC women's). She also co-coaches NYU Purple Reign -- though she tries to retire every year, it hasn't seemed to work yet. Aki is an avid plant lover, infrequent cartoonist, and auntie. She is also committed to the principles of the Design Justice Network, Consentful Tech, and works on public policy and organizing support for digital justice.
#2 Brittany “Bkap” Kaplan (she/her)
Brittany has been playing ultimate since 2000. She learned how to play at Amherst Regional High School, placed second in the first YCCs in 2005 with a roster of 9, continued at Vassar College, placed second at the first DIII Nationals in 2009, and was involved with NYC's club team BENT from 2012-2021. She has been on the DiscNY board since 2021 and has been organizing in NYC ultimate for the past decade. Professionally, Brittany is a documentary video editor. She has been on NYGL since its inaugural season in 2019 and is proud to be the oldest player!
#48 Lisa Kowalski (she/her)
Lisa fell in love with ultimate in high school at Pioneer Valley Performing Arts Charter Public School in 2009 and went on to play college women's with the Hippos at GW. She played her first club season in 2015 with Baltimore/DC Backhanded and spent four years with DC Scandal. Lisa currently plays for New York BENT and is excited to continue to grow women's ultimate in New York.
#6 Renata Pepi (she/her)
Renata started playing ultimate in high school in western Massachusetts. She had her first club season with Boston Siege in 2017. Since then she has played for Slow White, Bent, USA U24 National Women's Team, and Gridlock.
#20 Yina Paola Cartagena (she/her)
Yina Paola Cartagena has been playing ultimate for 17 years, she started in the INDER schools of Medellín in commune 13, rapidly advancing to join Revolution Sports Club where she is currently a player and captain.
She is recognized for multiple individual achievements within the sport: Talent Woman in the 2009 Sports category of the city of Medellín and MVP in the 2012 World Ultimate and Guts Championships in Japan. She is currently a Club World Champion with Revolution and is the coach of the Eafit University, both the women's and men's teams.
She has participated in the 3 years that the Colombian Ultimate Team has attended the World Games, raising the level of the sport in Colombia.
She is currently working on new projects and looking more and more towards professional sports and competing at the highest level.
This year she will participate for the first time in a Beach Worlds with Colombian National Team in the Mixed category.
#74 Sam Harris (they/them)
Sam started playing ultimate on a whim in 2016 on a high school team coached by Stazi. They played for New York's YCC mixed team from 2018-2019, and are currently finishing their college career playing at Wesleyan University where they've been a captain since 2021. Sam is extremely excited to get back to New York, and thrilled to be a part of Gridlock this season!
2023 Coaches
Eileen Murray (she/her)
Eileen comes back to the coaching staff for 2023 and couldn't be more thrilled with the team's new additions! Eileen started playing ultimate in 1993 in Tucson, AZ and went on to play for Atlanta's Ozone from 1998 - 2006, competing in 9 nationals and 3 world championships in Scotland, Hawaii, and Australia. Moving on to masters and grandmasters, Eileen captained the Atlantiques in PAUC 2015 to a bronz medal. Eileen started coaching in 2001 for a high school boys team and has coached in the college, club and professional divisions (MLU, AUDL, and PUL) and was the head coach of two national teams (U19 women 2008 and WBUC Mixed 2017).
Zara Cadoux (she/her)
After a few years away, Zara Cadoux is thrilled to be returning to the coaching staff of NY Gridlock for 2023. She started coaching in 2010 and has coached women’s and mixed youth, college, club, and pro. She is the co-founder of the Girls Ultimate Movement (GUM); 28 Days of Food, Frisbee, Feminism; and 99 Days of Ultimate Women. She comes from the coaching lineage of Tiina Booth, who over the years has mentored her in how to coach strategy, culture, and mental toughness. A facilitator and anti-oppression coach by trade, she lives in Crown Heights, Brooklyn where she is active in her tenant union.
Ryan Thompson (he/him)
Ryan Thompson is excited to be returning to coach Gridlock again in 2023! He started coaching in 2009 and has coached at the Youth Club, College, Club, and Pro levels, including at several USAU National Championship events. He started playing ultimate in 2003 at Columbia High School in Maplewood, NJ and spent a combined 10 years playing and coaching at Stanford. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife Sara.
John Raynolds (he/him)
John is thrilled to be joining the NYGL coaching staff for 2023! A product of the Seattle Ultimate community, he went on to play for the USA at Junior Worlds, Carleton CUT, and Seattle Sockeye. He coached NYC Blueprint last summer, and as a relative newcomer to NYC, he is excited to contribute to this wonderful Ultimate community. You can find John in Prospect Park pretending it is the PNW woods that he is used to.
Martha Gregory (she/her)
Martha returns for her 2nd year as coach for NYGL. She started playing in 2002 and has competed around the world. She appeared at Nationals in 2015 with BENT and played in the PUL for Columbus Pride and Gridlock. She began coaching in 2013 for the Stuyvesant Women's team and then coached the Kenyon College Men's and Womxn's teams. A longtime player and supporter in the New York ultimate scene, she is beyond thrilled to have the chance to coach this absurdly talented group of players for the 2023 PUL season.
Rena Eleázar (she/her)
Rena Eleázar is excited to return as the Director of Sports Performance for NYGL. She aims to continue elevating the level of athlete care and performance for women and non-binary athletes in professional Ultimate. As co-founder of match fit performance, Rena uses her knowledge as a Doctor of Physical Therapy, Board-Certified Clinical Specialist in Sports Physical Therapy, and NSCA Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist to support athletes' journeys through injury rehab all the way to peak performance. She hopes to integrate all she has learned from working within other professional sports organizations, such as the Brooklyn Nets and New Jersey Devils, to give all of NYGL's athletes the support they deserve on and off the field.