March 26, 2012

Those Austin Powers

Dartmouth rolled into Centex, the premier tournament in North America, ready to follow through on our tournament victory at Pres Day. Well we didn’t quite reach our expectations. We made valiant strides that are worth mentioning. Here is our story.

We got at the fields on Saturday at 7:45 a.m., wicked early for us, so that we’d be all warmed up in time for the teams. This tournament, we were more alert and better warmed up since probably Regionals '11.

Game 1 vs. Georgia.

We played a strong trap zone against Georgia, a very good Frisbee team. David threw pinpoint rolling pulls, which enabled our cup to get down and stop their motion. Spencer Diamond ’14 returned from Europe and got a layout in our zone. Dan (Fatty) Harris ’14 also returned from Europe and his buttery upline throws kept the O line moving.

A few critical mistakes from the o line were cashed in and we lost 14-13.

Game 2 vs ASU

Evidently there isn’t a big salary for ”cag swag” .I can’t say a whole lot about this game. Our energy was lagging a lot. It was very hot. During halftime, Brook told us, “When you’re in a hole, the first thing to do is to stop digging.” So we stopped digging. We made better decisions offensively the second half, but we still lost.

Game 3 vs Minnesota

Captain Scott Sottosanti bought his tickets for this game and showed up mightily. In a weird role reversal, Lee Farnsworth actually hucked the Frisbee to Scott deep in the endzone, who caught it in a full extension bid. So stunning, for 6 seconds it was unclear it was a goal. He also skyd 3 Minnis from a hospital pass from Lee at stall 9.

Our offense shredded their zone, but a couple of bad drops caused a loss for Dartmouth.

Game 4 vs Carleton

Our best game of the day. Our offense turned into 4th gear against Carleton, and I think we even got a break or two. Captains Engler and Spencer were daemon machines through the CUT zone. We kept them honest and cautious every point. They won.

Day 2

We played a highly contested game against Illinois. In the first half, we kept exchanging downwind points. Lee had a great sky against 2 Illinois players, except one of them made an “unathletic” move against Lee that injured his achilles’ heel.

Then Cecil Qiu ‘13, returning from Africa, got a D, and then busted deep and caught an upwind huck by Scott for the goal.

Then we exchanged upwind points, and we shredded their zone, except they got a couple breaks on us. On universe point, Apollo got a layout D in our endzone, but we turned it. Scott D’d an upline into the endzone but it game back on a contested foul. Illinois then scored and won the game.

Game 3 vs Washingotn

Washington, our opponents in the finals of Pres Day, played well this game, and they out threw us in the wind.

Dan Mott got an expansive layout D in our zone, and Cecil bid all over the field like an Oregon Trail farmer. Fatty had a notable huck to Arthur that sliced through 20mph winds.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t deliver the Frisbee in the endzone after our D’s and we got behind Washington a bit.

Game 4 vs Michigan State

Hats off!

What a fantastic game. We scrimmaged Michigan State to a game of 11. Nate Lehrer played incredible defense, including a layout on a handler. Andrew Pillsbury, always a master of ceremonies, paused to take his hat off while a disc flew in the air, and then skied someone in the endzone.

Alpha legend John Xu controlled the Dartmouth offense this game. In the most incredible scene I have ever seen on a Frisbee field, he managed to throw it through a defender into Pillsbury’s outreached hand in the endzone on a stall 9. It was a poetic way to end our tournament at Centex.