Over spring break, 30 members of the ultimate frisbee team attended the High Tide tournament in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. For the second year in a row, the team placed second place in its bracket.
On Monday, March 13 the team kicked off the competition by participating in a “hat tourney” in which teams are randomized. This allowed athletes from different schools to get to know each other before the main competition.
“It’s called a hat tourney because, usually, you get matching hats so you know who’s on your team,” junior Melanie Carr, the club president, said.
“It’s just a fun little thing that High Tide does so every team gets to mingle with other people,” junior captain Sara O’Keefe said. “[It] creates connections … It’s a good start for the week.”
From Tuesday to Thursday, the actual tournament took place. The teams first participated in pool play, which consisted of three games on Tuesday and Wednesday. Each game was an hour and 10 minutes long.
“It’s a lot of frisbee, but honestly you don’t even notice, you’re just having so much fun with a group of people that you love,” Carr said.
These games determined placement in bracket play on Thursday.
“We played pretty well in our pool, so we got a good spot in bracket play,” Carr said.
Lafayette beat St. Mary’s and Westchester in bracket play, sending it to the bracket finals where it ultimately lost to Elon College.
“It was still a great game, and we had a lot of fun and kept up the energy even though we didn’t win,” Carr said. “We’re so proud we got so far. It’s a big tournament … [with] teams all over the nation. It’s a huge thing in the frisbee community, and we got second place which is super exciting.”
Carr praised the leadership of junior Peyton Mahler, who is the club’s vice president.
“He’s amazing at his job. He supports me through everything,” Carr said.
The rest of the club’s executive board includes freshman treasurer Jaden Wurm, sophomore secretary Sarah Beitel, as well as junior Finian Zakas and sophomore Sam Cohen, both of whom are also captains.
“As captains, we are facilitating knowledge about frisbee, skills that we want our players to be able to have [and] coordinating tournaments. We’re kind of like the coaches of the team,” O’Keefe, who has been playing ultimate frisbee for 12 years, said.
The team is working on organizing tournaments for the rest of the semester.
