Saturday morning in Corvallis, OR dawned with cool, dry weather, high cloud cover with a threat of rain and a light breeze – perfect conditions for the 15 Open division teams vying for the
USA Ultimate High School Western Championship. The tournament had many familiar faces from previous years, as well as some teams making their first appearance. Last year’s champion
South Eugene Axemen out of Eugene, Ore. and runner-up
The Northwest School from Seattle sat atop the pre-tournament rankings with
Catholic HS, traveling all the way from Baton Rouge, LA and perennial contender
Hopkins Hurt out of Hopkins, MN rounding out the top seeds. The story of the day would be the separation of the top teams from the rest of the field and whether any teams would challenge the top two, South Eugene and The Northwest School.
First round action highlighted the separation in skill, experience and just plain domination of the top schools; no team lost in the first round by less than seven points. Second-round action saw a couple of closer games, especially in pool B, where the first upset of the day had the third-seeded
Wichita East Beast Aces from Kansas taking out the second-seeded
Garfield HS Purple Haze from Seattle. This upset would portend the closest pool at the tournament, ultimately needing point differential to decide the ranking into the crossovers. Pool play ran fairly close to seed, with two other upsets coming in the final round of pool play. In pool B, the
Sheldon Huck of the Irish (Eugene, Ore.), making their first appearance, also got the first win over Wichita Beast, leading to the three-way win-loss tie, needing the point differential to unravel. Unfortunately for Sheldon, a big loss to Garfield earlier meant they still finished behind the other teams and would miss the crossover round. Pool D saw the other significant upset with second-seeded Hopkins turning in a strong performance over the first seed, winning 13-7 and finishing atop their pool. This was a great game, close until the final few points when Hurt pulled away. The last point was particularly exciting, with several turnovers on big D’s, big hucks and some huge layouts before Hurt was able to seal the game.
.jpg)
PHOTO CREDIT: Steve Kotvis
In the cross-over round, the top pool finishers would play for seeding into the quarterfinals on Sunday morning, whereas the second and third place finishers would play for the chance to meet those top seeds in the quarters. Losers from the 2/3 games would drop to the consolation bracket. With a lot on the line, teams came out fired up to show what they had, and games generally were closer. Top-seeded South Eugene and The Northwest School would not face much of a challenge in their matches. The most exciting game of the round was
Franklin HS from Seattle versus
Monarch HS from Louisville, Colo. Both teams run a wide open offense, where great throwers have license to throw long to a very athletic core of receivers. Teams traded points and a couple of breaks throughout the first half, ultimately tying at 10’s following a layout bid for the score from Monarch. With soft cap on and game to 12, a very tense couple of points with several turns, huge throws, a contested greatest for a score that went back to thrower finally saw Franklin break to come out on top, 12-10. It was a great, spirited battle with clean points and fantastic play on both sides, certainly the game of the day.
At the end of a long day with the crossovers done and the championship and consolation brackets set, the question still remains, is anyone ready and able to take on the very top seeds? Or will South Eugene and The Northwest School continue their march toward the rematch of last year to decide the Western Champion?