USA Ultimate

Event Website U-19X Scoreboard

[PHOTO CREDIT: Christina Schmidt UltiPhotos.com]

Bright blue skies, cool temperatures, and the mildest of breezes greeted the Youth Mixed players this Saturday morning. Although Pool B played out according to seed—BUDA came out on top with a grand total of seven points scored on them all day—Pool A was completely scrambled as Seattle’s DiscNW Pandamonium unseated Bay Area Disc’s Happy Cows for the top spot.

Many games today proved to be exciting. In the first round, the Bay Area and Chicago teams battled it out for a win, trading points after the Happy Cows made a comeback after an early three-point deficit. Although the latter team looked especially young and small compared to their opponents (their youngest and smallest player, Eleanora Angstadt-Leto, is a mere twelve years old!), they knew just how to deal with the Micromachines’ size, experience, and solid technical game: that is, utilizing the speed of players like Kainoa Chun-Moy (#5), the defense and strong arm of the experienced Jonathan Gonzalez (#31), and the scrappy endurance of their women—especially the young Angstadt-Leto. Their energetic coach, Geoff Rexroth, kept the small bunch hyped up until the end.

Perhaps the most exciting storyline of the day was Rising Tide of Maine’s success. The team was seeded last in their pool, but managed to come in second with a 2-1 record. High spirits, a deep, large team, and a big coaching presence helped this aptly named team ascend to the top of their pool today. Their biggest—and closest—win was over the Happy Cows in the second round of the day. The team was able to keep up with the defending champions by playing tough D and textbook zone offense: their handlers calmly swung the disc between themselves (with serene-looking handler Chloe Rowse throwing some huge, cross-field i.o. flicks for good measure) to easily tie the score up. The score was 10-10 when hard cap sounded, with Rising Tide in possession: Maine put it to the back right hand corner of the endzone and Tom Edmonds (#8) caught the disc despite the best efforts of his Bay Area defender. After much debate as to whether the disc was up or down, the two teams decided that the game belonged to Maine.

The team to beat in the Mixed division is clearly BUDA, hailing from Massachusetts. Not only is the team comprised of even-tempered, athletic, and seasoned players, they also have a unique secret weapon: their girls. A strong squad of girls is often said to be the key to a successful mixed team, and saying that these girls are strong is an understatement: they are dominant. As their coach Josh Seamon commented, "Our girls are always involved in more than 50% of plays on the field, despite the fact that there are consistently fewer of them on the field than the boys." All of the girls have extremely accurate and powerful throws, leading boys deep just as often as they run for it themselves. Watch out for big moves from playmakers Anna Kaplan (#1), Tulsa Douglas (#14), and Rory Palmer (#15) tomorrow.
 

Games to watch tomorrow:

• Bay Area vs. Minnesota: will the up-and-coming home team be able to defeat the reigning mixed champions, or will the Happy Cows make the most of their young team and pull ahead?
   
• Maine vs. Madison: will Maine be able to continue its streak of success, or will day two of competition prove exhausting?
  
   

Memorable plays:

• Maine’s Noah Robinson (#21) achieved layout bookends: he laid out for the D and then immediately laid out for the score
   
• Minnesotan Alex Kunzer’s (5) huge D in BUDA’s endzone, turning the disc for a home state score
   
• DiscNW’s Miguel Sheets (#24) and Bay Area Disc’s Charlie Weatherford (#11) both spectacularly dive for the disc in DiscNW’s
  endzone; Sheets grabs it for the score and both players come down on the ground hard; Weatherford stands up, holds his hands out to his opponent to pull him up and heartily congratulates him mid-lift
   
• Chicago’s Jack Shanahan (#7) impressively yanks the disc out of the air among a thick crowd of opponents.