Geiger wins second ACO Women’s title

By Nathaniel Underwood

For the second time in four years, Maggie Geiger stood alone at the end of the American Cornhole Organization’s World Championships women’s tournament. In the decisive final match, where she needed to win two straight games against her opponent, Geiger came out victorious in both to earn her second women’s title.

The ACO World Championships 19, which was held between July 18 and July 27 in Owensboro, Ky., featured a number of different tournaments and the best players from around the country. The event was the conclusion to the 2023-24 season for ACO, which has been holding tournaments since 2006.

Battling her way through a tough women’s bracket that featured 101 participants, Geiger, who currently lives in Dorchester, was no stranger to tough competition. Having competed in the world championship tournaments for several years now, she noted that having more experience at these events has helped.

“I’m a little more relaxed going into them now,” Geiger said. “I don’t let the nerves get to me like I did in the beginning. But the competitiveness and the drive is still there. I want to keep improving, to keep winning.”

Geiger kept her cool even after falling into the loser’s bracket following a defeat to eventual third-place winner Sarah Hardy. She worked her way back up through the bracket and launched herself into the finals, where she was matched up against a familiar foe.

In 2022, Maggie Geiger faced off against Amber Fretwell in a best-of-three tiebreaker series to determine who would be named the American Cornhole Organization’s Women's Player of the Year at the ACO World Championships held in Branson, Mo. Geiger won the match-up with a 2-1 victory and earned her second Player of the Year award. Fretwell then got the better of Geiger in the 2023 women’s tournament, knocking her out of the tourney before eventually taking second place.

“We’ve met a few times throughout the years playing at majors and obviously at world’s,” Geiger said of Fretwell. “She and I are always pretty equal. We always go back and forth.”

The pair faced off once more in the championship round on Thursday, July 25. Fretwell came into the final contest with a slight advantage, needing only one win against Geiger to earn the title. Geiger, coming back through the loser’s bracket, needed to pull off two straight victories to claim the top spot.

Despite that disadvantage, Geiger headed into the final match with a clear head.

“I was actually oddly calm,” she recalled. “All day, I was really calm about it. I just knew that if I could keep my head in the game and win the first one, that it would be putting a lot of added pressure on my opponent.”

Getting that first win to equalize the playing field was paramount, and with that knowledge, Geiger jumped out to a solid lead in the first contest. She jumped out to a 7-0 lead in the first few rounds and came out on top in the mid-game as well, holding an 18-8 advantage as she pushed towards her first victory.

Fretwell was not going to go down without a fight, however, and the tables started to turn towards Geiger's opponent as they made their way to the end game. Fretwell scored eight straight points to close the gap between the pair and bring herself back into the affair.

“I just started getting a little too comfortable,” Geiger said when recalling the comeback effort from Fretwell. “It’s a lot more of a mental game than I think people give it credit for and I know that my mind just kind of started drifting. When she started coming back, I thought, ‘oh no, I gotta get back into this and finish it off.’” Geiger refocused and secured the win in the next round, putting in three of her shots and not even needing to toss her fourth bag after Fretwell left all four of hers on the board.

“Once I got that first win, it was a big relief for me,” Geiger said.

With the hardest part in her rearview mirror, Geiger once again got off to a strong start in the second game. She jumped out to a commanding 12-0 lead, scoring the most consecutive points by either player in the finals to put herself in solid position to claim her second women’s title.

Despite her advantage, comebacks from such positions are hardly impossible, so Geiger knew she needed to maintain her focus.

“I’ve seen it happen, I’ve had it happen,” she said. “But I could just tell that she was starting to get frustrated with her throws going off to the side and when I see my opponent get a little frustrated it relaxes me a little bit more.”

Fretwell managed to cut into that initial advantage, outscoring Geiger 10-4 over the next few rounds. With her lead dwindled down to six points, Geiger bounced back, pulling out a 10-8 and a 12-10 frame to pull within a point of victory.

She continued to lay down the pressure

See TWO-TIME CHAMP/ Page 11

BIG WIN - Maggie Geiger, left, poses with her father Wayne Rau, right, after winning the women’s tournament at the ACO world championships held in Owensboro, Ky. over the past week.

SUBMITTED PHOTO Two-time champ

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in the next round, netting another three bags in the hole and forcing Fretwell to the brink of elimination. Down to her last bag and with two on the board, but off to the right, Fretwell needed to get two bags in the hole to continue the match. Despite the difficulty of the shot and the pressure of the moment, Fretwell managed to hit the perfect shot, netting both her final bag and one on the board to tie the frame and continue the game. The crowd appreciated the shot, erupting in cheers as Fretwell lived to fight another day.

While those attending may have been surprised by the play, Geiger wasn’t.

“I’ve seen her hit shots like that before,” she said. “We could hear the announcers and we could hear them saying ‘oh, she just won, she’s got the game’ and as soon as I heard them say that, I knew Amber had heard it as well. There’s the fuel to the fire that she needed.”

While the shot could have potentially changed the momentum of the match, Geiger continued to pepper the board in the next frame. After both players sunk their first shots, Geiger placed her next two bags directly in front of the hole, creating a defensive barrier that Fretwell could not work around. With the round tied at 5-5 and on her final bag, Geiger decided to continue to put on the pressure, attempting to airmail her final bag over the top of her barrier. The risk paid off as she was able to sink the tough shot and force Fretwell to do the same. Her opponent could not pull off two difficult throws in a row, her final shot bouncing short and to the left of the hole before sliding off the board and sealing Geiger victory.

“I knew that if I made the airmail, that the only thing that she could do would be to wash that round, so it felt like the best play,” Geiger said of her strategy in what turned out to be the final frame.

Geiger will add the championship to her growing resume of ACO accolades, but she said that this one meant something special to her.

“Winning this championship was a lot sweeter to me than the first time I won,” she noted. “More of my family was able to come to this major and there were more local players there as well. So it was cool to look up to the bleachers and see that there was a bleacher full of people cheering for me.”

On top of adding the women’s championship to her trophy case, Geiger and her father, Wayne Rau, also finished with the most co-ed doubles points for the season, something that they’ve been looking to accomplish since they started playing in the ACO. Typically to win the award, a team must max out on points, which would require them to win not only eight regional tournaments but also four majors over the course of a season.

“We have come so close for so many years, but have fallen just short by not winning one or two tournaments,” Geiger said. “To finally get that title, we were pretty stoked about it.”

To do so with her father, who Geiger noted was the driving force behind her joining the ACO in the first place, made it all the better.

Now, she is doing the same, helping other local players get into the ACO and flourish.

“I love encouraging people. There've been a few guys who have joined our regionals that I’ve given pointers to and now some of them beat me,” Geiger said with a laugh. “But I do love watching the game grow and giving advice if I can. I love watching the new players come up and do well in the scene.”