MCC 11-0 against Big 10 teams for national championship

Photo credit - Robert Maharry/Times-Republican

The Marshalltown Community College Mario Kart team has been something special ever since Amber Lawthers burned rubber in Fall 2022 and put MCC Esports on the map. Since then, the hits have just kept coming! MCC Esports now holds 12 national championships, five of which are in Mario Kart 8 DX alone. 

These wins include:

• Fall 2022 – NJCAAE D1 1v1 – Amber Lawthers
• Fall 2023 – NJCAAE 4v4 – Amber Lawthers, Whit Gerard, Brannen Kent, Javier Nunez
• Fall 2024 – NJCAAE D2 1v1 – Ryne Erickson
• Spring 2025 – NJCAAE D3 1v1 – Dimitrios Petrimeas
• Fall 2025 – CKL D2 Championship – Tess Pacza, Dimitrios Petrimeas, Ryne Erickson, Roby Widner, Pete Perkins, and Jacob Eirikson

This season marked the first time that MCC has expanded beyond competing in the National Junior College Athletic Association Esports (NJCAAE) to a new league, the Collegiate Karting League (CKL). CKL is the premiere home for collegiate Mario Kart, run by a staff of college volunteers under the banner of Mario Kart Central, a fan made community league where the most serious Mario Kart competitors duke it out in tournaments and ranked lobbies called "Lounges."

The team was nervous about branching out from the junior college scene to compete against larger colleges and universities. CKL has a storied history with teams from the University of Michigan, the University of Northern Iowa, Arizona State University, the University of Waterloo, and Florida International University, just to name a few, several of whom are reigning CKL champions.

Yet, the MCC Mario Kart team, led by captain Tess Pacza and fielded by NJCAAE champion Ryne Erickson, Mario Kart Central veteran and NJCAAE champion Dimitrios Petrimeas, NJCAAE D1 runner-up Roby Widner, high school dual-enrolled student Jacob Eirikson, and first semester freshman Pete Perkins, trekked bravely into the unknown, confident the team had what it would take to make a strong showing. 

CKL uses a skill-based division system based on past season performance and off-season scrimmages. With MCC having no prior record, Head Coach Nate Rodemeyer wasn't sure which Division they'd be placed into, but they found themselves in Division 2, becoming the highest ranked rookie team of any Iowa college in CKL history (which includes the University of Northern Iowa, Buena Vista University, Wartburg University, and Coe College). With a home and a goal, MCC forged ahead, hoping to set the world on fire once again.

11 undefeated games later, MCC emerged as the CKL Division 2 national champion after defeating Michigan State on Sunday, October 12th! Along the way, the team had to defeat several much larger schools including the University of Tennessee, Oklahoma University, and University of California San Diego, just to name a few. Coach Rodemeyer attributes the team's success and ability to not only compete with, but beat these juggernauts, to a variety of factors, including Tess's leadership and ability to bring people together, Dimitri's dominance on the track and wealth of MKC experience, years of chemistry from longtime teammates Ryne and Roby, the tenacity and grit of newcomers Jake and Pete, and a singular goal from the entire team -- "Leave it all out on the track."

In a post-game interview with CKL, Rodemeyer said, "There's a lot of great teams in the CKL, but I'm confident when I say no team worked harder or wanted it more than MCC. In the week leading up to the grand finals, we scouted deeper and scrimmaged harder than ever."

You can follow MCC Esports on Instagram at @esportsmccia or YouTube and Twitch at esportsmcc!

You can watch the final match broadcasted by CKL on YouTube.

For inquiries about MCC Esports, please contact head coach Nate Rodemeyer (Nathan.Rodemeyer@iavalley.edu)