USA Ultimate

Mixed Division Southwest Regionals Recap

This weekend’s Southwest Mixed Regionals proved an interesting experience. First, Saturday got delayed due to soaked fields, and the brackets were rescheduled to a midday and an afternoon set. For the earlier games, there were high speed winds, rain, and snow flurries to play through, leading to games like a 8-7 win for 7 Figures over Killjoy. The evening rounds were cold, but thankfully, the rain had abated. The Colorado teams definitely showed their home-field advantage this weekend: in the quarterfinals games, no Colorado team lost to a team out of state, except for Spring Loaded to first seed 7 Figures and The Strangers in a close game to Hawaii’s Sweet Ride. Of the top 8 finishers, 7 Figures is from Los Angeles, Sweet Ride is from Hawaii (Finished T7) and Red or Green is from New Mexico (who dropped seed from 3 to T5); the rest of the top 8 teams are all Colorado locals. It is also important to note that the observers did a great job keeping the games moving; with rounds capped at 90 minutes, quick calls and short timeouts were key, as all the important games were played to the time caps. Additionally, from this reporter’s San Diego-centric viewpoint, the quality of the average pulls in the thin CO air were very impressive.

Sunday opened up with a cold but beautiful morning, sun shining bright and barely any wind. With these ideal conditions, we saw some amazing games being played. Though Saturday had been tough conditions to play through, the top seeded teams all ended up either in the semis of the championship bracket or making their way up the backdoor route. The semis of the championship bracket were probably the most exciting games all weekend. First, the 2 seed Mesteno battled Red or Green in a tight game, eventually pulling out a win for the Denver locals. On the next field over, Swingline was giving first seed 7 Figures a run for their money. Through 7 Figs pulled out an early lead, Swingline quickly caught up, and took half 8-7. 7 Figures rallied, and at 10-9 Swingline, a layout dump D by Sam Reigner leads to a quick break throw to make the score 10-10 , with 7 Figures to pull. Swingline puts a throw into open space, and a heads up Matt Welsh makes a critical D, leading 7 Figures into the finals.

But Swingline wasn’t done, and their backdoor semis matchup against Killjoy was tight. After completing an intense comeback win vs Red or Green full of high octane athletic plays, Killjoy entered their game with Swingline fired up . Swingline took half 8-7, as they were able to match Killjoy’s athleticism with their own , and managed to grow and keep their lead  on the backs of consistent and constistently crafty handler movement enough to make it to the Backdoor Finals game.

The finals game was a great one to watch. Mesteno, souped-up with pickups from Johnny Bravo, gave 7 Figures a run for their money. The two traded points until the softcap went off at 10-9, 7 Figures lead. The SoCal team’s energy would just be too great for Mesteno to counter, especially with Chuck Kindred snagging a Callahan. With a sweet layout grab from Matt Hennesy against a much taller defender, the game ended 12-9, and 7 Figures secured their spot to Nationals.

Though Mesteno played their hardest against 7 Figures, they didn’t show any signs of being tired in the backdoor finals game. Swingline gave them a tough matchup, but Mesteno kept a solid lead throughout the whole game, winning 12-9.

LA’s 7 Figures and Denver’s Mesteno advance to Nationals. 

Highlights:

• The weekend’s schedule got reworked due to rain and closed fields
• 7 Figures proved their strength by winning three close games in a row to win the Region.
• Mesteno lost in the finals but secured their second place spot with a solid win over Swingline.