Max Resnik earns D-III men’s Breakout Player of the Year honors

Max Resnik did not just have a better spring. He changed tiers. The Carleton CHOP sophomore went from 2 goals and 2 assists in 2025 to 17 goals and 16 assists in 2026, while his turnovers rose only from 6 to 10, a surge that made him Ultiworld’s D-III men’s Breakout Player of the Year.

That leap mattered because Resnik was not padding numbers in low-leverage minutes. Ultiworld described him as central to Carleton’s offensive operation after he was thrust into a featured role, and the move to the O-line as a sophomore paid off fast. By the end of Carleton’s run at the 2026 USA Ultimate D-III College Championships in Waukegan, Illinois, Resnik had become the kind of player defenses had to build a game plan around.

The proof showed up immediately in pool play. In Carleton’s opening game, a 14-8 win over Berry, Resnik finished with 4 goals, 1 assist, 2 blocks and 4 turnovers. Ultiworld’s day-one recap credited him with 9 goals and 10 assists across Carleton’s first three pool games, a volume line that captured how much of CHOP’s offense ran through him as the No. 2 seed rolled to a 3-0 pool record.

Resnik’s rise also tracked with Carleton’s national profile. The team reached the semifinals after beating Berry again in the quarterfinals and then Oklahoma Christian in the semifinals, before Middlebury Pranksters closed the door with a 15-7 win in the final. That title game underscored how visible Resnik had become by season’s end: Ultiworld’s defensive player writeup said Nadav Melamede shut down and shut out Resnik in the championship, a sign that opponents were treating him as CHOP’s focal point rather than just another offensive option.

That is what breakout seasons look like in Division III. They are not only about production, but about responsibility, usage and how quickly a player forces himself into the center of the sport’s biggest weekends. Resnik did that for Carleton, and by May 18 in Waukegan, his name had moved from promising contributor to defining star.