Flatland Freezer V

That's the name of the tournament I was at this weekend in McPherson, Kansas, one of the few places I've seen that's more in the middle of nowhere than Oklahoma. I went as extra legs and experience for OU's B-team, the Babboons of Wrath. I think there were two other people there of 13 who had A-team ultimate experience, and they spent most of their time on the sidelines freezing their asses off while I was playing and freezing my ass off with 6 guys who each had barely 2 months experience. It was cold, possibly colder than Hanover, 30 yesterday, 25 today, with 20mph winds yesterday.

So I ended up playing handler basically every point the whole weekend. I would say it was a good experience, but no one had any throws in that wind. By the end of the day I was managing to complete most of my throws and not drop anything, but that's because I never threw it more than 10 yards. We ended up going 1-4, beating a team of high school kids who would make zargham look tall and one of whom told me "that was a pretty desparate throw" after I nearly completed a 30 yard upwind hammer for a score. Like anyone else was cutting. Overall I am pretty happy with my handling, there were times when I really had the offense running well, but there were other hell points where I probably pulled a hat trick times 2. My cutting was decent, I think, and of course my defense needs a lot of work, especially man where I had a tendency to shut down my man the whole point only to loose concentration for a few seconds and let him get open. Essentially I need my field sense back.

Highlights include a zone D point where I won a dollar for getting a layout D. I used it buy chicken nuggets at Wendys. I also managed to hold up Dartmouth's rage reputation by participating and placing 4th on the team in what OU called the "comsumer challenge".

All in all a great weekend of ultimate.

-receptacle