Another Women’s Flat Track Derby Association national championship event, another disappointment for Austin’s Texas Rollergirls. Touring team the Texecutioners came in fourth in this weekend’s Northwest Knockdown in Portland, Ore., while New York’s Gotham Rollergirls took the top prize. The bright spot in this is that Texas were the only team from the Western region get to the semi-finals.

Texas started the weekend well. A 125-61 beat-down handed to the Carolina Rollergirls (built around Rice Rocket’s insane 6.5 points per jam average) raised hopes on Friday that the finals would be the Texas-Gotham bout that many fans have been dreaming about all year. But the momentum came to an end Saturday after a neck-and-neck battle with Chicago’s Windy City Rollers. Coming out of the set 60 minutes tied 91-91, the two teams had to go into overtime – only the second time that has ever happened in derby history (the first and last time was when the Detroit Derby Girls eked out a win from the Boston Massacre at the 2007 Heartland Havoc).

In the extra two minutes, Rice faced off against Kola Loka (being talked about as the event”s real MVP), but ultimately fell short 110-97. Bizarrely, this is being treated as a major upset by some in the derby community. Considering there’s really a hair’s breath between the top-flight derby travel teams these days, that’s pretty insulting to Chicago.

But neither team was to have much more joy: Windy lost to new champions Gotham, while Texas lost the grudge match for third and fourth places to the Philly Rollergirls, 114-95. That gave the east coast a straight run of top three places in the last year of only two divisions.

Final Rankings
1: Gotham Girls Roller Derby
2: Windy City Rollers
3: Philly Rollergirls
4: Texas Rollergirls

Knocked out in first round: Duke City Derby, Carolina Rollergirls, Rat City Rollergirls, Bay Area Derby Girls

This article appears in November 14 • 2008.

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The Chronicle's first Culture Desk editor, Richard has reported on Austin's growing film production and appreciation scene for over a decade. A graduate of the universities of York, Stirling, and UT-Austin, a Rotten Tomatoes certified critic, and eight-time Best of Austin winner, he's currently at work on two books and a play.