USA Ultimate

Masters Division Mid-Atlantic Regionals Recap

Sunday October 2nd, 2011

Mid-Atlantic Masters Regionals was held in Cary, NC, over the weekend of October 1 and 2.  A cold weather snap saw the temperatures drop nearly 20 degrees so that both days of play were in cool autumnish high 60 degree temperatures.  Uncharacteristic winds in the area averaged 5 mph and gusted as high as 9 mph. 

Seeding held in this tourney, with NC’s Boneyard winning the Championship game on Sunday, 15-11, over DC’s Chesapeaked.  Both teams made waves at Sarasota in 2010: Boneyard cruised through pool play and took care of business in elimination play to reach the championship game against Surly; and Chesapeaked cracked the elite eight and settled in at #7, beating out DoG in its final game.

Boneyard made some cuts at the beginning of the 2011 season that saw long-time players depart, while younger studs from Ring of Fire, LCN, and X-rates came on board (e.g., Kris Bass, Jimmy Holtzman, Mike Jolley).  Though Troy Revell left AJ Iwaszko’s Chesapeaked and joined Boneyard, the Chesapeaked roster also got some upgrades, such as Russell Furr, Billy Maroon, and Rod Hannon.  Each team was presumably just a bit more prepared for making the trip to Sarasota, and Chesapeaked was able to mount an 11-12 performance against Boneyard in pool play, and they hung tough in the championship game through 9s, before Boneyard closed the game out with a couple of 2-point runs.

Meanwhile, Natty Bros (seeded #4 and #4 after pool play) and Ra (seeded #3 and #3 after pool play) were vying for the opportunity to reach Sarasota via the backdoor, hoping to win an opportunity to play a tired and demoralized championship game loser.  Natty Bros (DC and Baltimore) played in the to-go game in 2010 against Chesapeaked and were hoping to do the same this year.  Ra is a new team Triangle, NC, team that picked up the pieces of 2010’s T-Rex and added aged-out Boneyard players, while also bringing on a few new faces to the masters scene.  Ra’s performance in the 3/4 game was on par with its performance in pool play against Natty Bros, and they came away with a solid 15-7 performance.

The to-go backdoor game between Chesapeaked and Ra had both teams playing clean, solid O to reach 2s.  Chesapeaked got its first break in a long, multi-possession 5th point, then ran off 3 more goals, which allowed them to close the half at 8-4.  A strong push by Ra in the second half garnered several defensive possessions, some of which turned into coveted breaks.  Ra closed the gap to 8-10, held to 9-11, but could not keep possession in the final stretch, with Chesapeaked closing out the game 15-9.

Both teams going into the 5/6 game (Charlotte’s Old ‘n’ Busted and the third masters team from the Triangle, NC, Marauders), held seed through pool play (5 and 6, respectively), and the hotly contested fivals game results (15-14) allowed Old ‘n’ Busted to retain its #5 ranking.