2013 Pain Train

Pain Train is back for 2013!!!

 

This past fall was a great one for the Pain Train. Coming off a loss to Tufts in the game-to-go for the 2nd straight year at Regionals last spring, the Pain Train left for the summer with a chip on our shoulders and something left to prove. The Pain Train earned some valuable club experience this summer, with Ian Engler making it to Club Nationals with Wildcard, Dan Harris and Spencer Diamond playing for Dark or Light, among others.

Due to some good luck, the Pain Train returned 21 players from last year. We added '16s Peter Lobel, David "D-P-Free" Friedman, and Sean "Badger" Howe in the fall, adding to an already incredibly strong team. The Pain Train took off running at the beginning of the fall, with an increased focus on tenacious defense and calm, possession-oriented offense. At Huck a Hunk of Burning Pumpkin, Pain Train went undefeated, capping off the weekend with a 15-7 win over Harvard Redline in the finals. Our 2nd tournament of the fall was the Classic City Classic in Athens, Georgia, traditionally one of the premier fall tournaments. Pain Train stumbled on Saturday, falling to FSU in pool play, giving us a 2-1 record to take 2nd in the pool. Facing a prequarters elimination game on Saturday afternoon against Virginia Night Train, the Pain Train came roaring back for a strong 13-11 win to put us into the quarters.

The Pain Train kept rolling Sunday morning, with a 17-15 win over Georgia in the quarters and a 16-15 win over Georgia Tech in the semis. Both games featured Scott Sottosanti and Dan Harris running the show on offense, with Jon Xu and Richard Lange also stepping up big on the o-line. Ian Herrick and Spencer Diamond bolstered the defensive effort, getting critical D's when we needed them. The Train roared into a finals rematch against Florida State hungry for revenge. The Train struggled early in the game, perhaps tired from the 2 long games earlier in the day. However, the depth of our team really showed in the 2nd half, as a whole cast of players stepped up and helped the Train fight back to a 13-13 tie. FSU scored to make it 14-13, and then after a quick turn, scored again to take the 15-13 win. A disappointing end to a great weekend. Nonetheless, it was an incredibly successful fall season for the Pain Train, and a sign that the Train has the potential to do big things this season.

After a long winter break that saw all members of the Pain Train working hard while spread around the country, the Pain Train returned to Hanover bigger, stronger, and faster. After adding '14 Gerben Scherpbier at the beginning of the winter, the Pain Train is complete and ready to take off running.

After being stuck in Leverone these past few weeks, we're gearing up for our first test of the year, Warm Up: A Florida Affair, next weekend. The Pain Train kicks off our season at 9am next Friday, February 15 against Central Florida. Follow all the action on our twitter or on Score Reporter.

Set Fire to the Pain Train

Set Fire to the Pain Train

Saturday, Dartmouth went to sectionals in Durham New Hampshire. It was the shortest tournament in Dartmouth’s history.

Our first game was against Middlebury, and we beat them. Amherst Regional High School’s Spencer Diamond played well for Dartmouth, although ironically, he is also the Callahan nominee for the Middlebury Pranksters. The rotation was fairly open. Our cutters sliced the field better than a wakizashi through a watermelon.

Our next game was against UVM, and Dartmouth Pain Train was thirsty to make up for their loss against them at New England Open. Young Alex Crew ’08 was nice enough to come out and support the team. He went to the ultimate spectating hill and saw to where his alumni donations were going.

Our offense set fire to the Pain Train, summarily dominating the opponents and scoring goals. Old timers on the side line would note the resemblance of our offense to that of Pres Day. It flowed and it was oiled. “Ain’t nobody was dropping them discs on that grass.” Ian Adelstein got open at will and hucked it as well. He threw a nice huck to Spencer. Matt Heffley busted deep and caught several points, followed by his really aggressive, in your face spikes. Ian Engler was able to break marks, and a couple of his breaks against UVM marks enabled Preakness moments. Crew was intrigued.

Our offense this time, however, was more seasoned, more battle hardened than the one we had in California. Said one wise Pain trainer: “The O line of before was like an eight year old dominating his peers in Mario Kart; our O line of Saturday was a well groomed professional, advancing his career, no stranger to failure.”

Let me make it clear though, Dartmouth Defense United actually brought dynamite to this game. Coach Brook made some tactical defensive decisions that clogged the UVM’s offense. Spencer and Sottosanti caught errant hucks on several occasions. Apollo had a mega layout on an in cut. We beat UVM 15-10. We got the Crew stamp of approval (I think). Victory. Now onto Regionals in less than 2 weeks.

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 4^th 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.

The Keys to San Diego

To Dartmouth Ultimate alums and players, It’s 11:20 am Tuesday morning, and the Dartmouth Pain Train is resting, eating and focusing on the present and the next step. Which is why I mention, simply as a fact, that two days ago, February 19th saw the Pain Train hold the keys to San Diego. What I mean is that the Train won the Pres Day Tournament. Fact.

Before I divulge the hero’s journey our team took, which ended on a catch by Dan Rosengard against University of Washington in the finals, let me give you some context. We were only 16 strong in California, missing more than a line of players: Sam Hills, Dan Harris, Ian Herrick, Spencer Diamond, Richard Lange, Henry Frost, Cecil Qiu, Dan Mott and Sean Derrow. Knowing this, we budgeted our energy extremely effectively (2 pass o line points when possible) and got the most from everyone, like Spartan warriors. Everyone put on sunscreen.

Day 1

Game #1.

This was against Arizona State and might have been our unflowiest game of the tournament. It was pretty close, and there were a lot of hucks either way. Rosie injured his leg d’ing a hospital pass, but he would reappear after the buy round stronger than ever. We won.

Game #2

During the buy we went to the other fields to watch the women play and then returned to play game number 2 against Santa Cruz, and we won handily. Not a lot to say—they did a lot of Moses’ plays http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossing_the_Red_Sea but Coach Brook Belichick figured out how to contain their deep strikes.

Game #3

This game against Chico State was a good, honest, hard game. They appeared a hippy team, but they were deceptively athletic and good at Frisbee. Largely our offense traded points, except that our offense was indomitable. Engler controlled the disk and Rosie and Adels got hundreds of yards with their in cuts. Lee spent full seconds of hangtime in the endzone pulling down throws. Caleb had an astounding layout catch in the endzone. We won.

Game #4

Easily the best game Prain had had up until that point, against UCSB Black Tide. This was the point of the tournament when we forwent (J) the budgeting and the strategy and the sunscreen (except for Brook) and literally challenged the other team to a heart contest, which we win 100% of the time. We traded points with UCSB and took half, although they came right back and were even leading 10-11. Every time we coughed the disk, they were good enough to bring it to the bank. But they could not match our speed and our power in the air. Adels and Scott had in cut D’s. David the Tetrapus had a butterlike backhand huck to Lee that was sadly contested. In the penultimate point, Engler flew upline and did a barrel roll to ward of his attackers and catch the Frisbee in the endzone. The Robin taught him well. Our heart paid off and we beat them.

Day 2

On to the second day when things got really real for us.

Game #1

Our first game was against Cal Poly U “SLO.” Despite a double break to start off, they came back, getting breaks when we did, and largely trading points with us. This game, with a light wind, showcased our offense, which was much quicker than theirs. Our man D was ok against them, but they punished our slowness whenever we transitioned from zone to man. In the 2^nd half Slo actually got the lead on us, and it was really up in the air who was going to win it. Our Oline kept delievering though, scoring against both their man and zone defense. Whatever techniques they employed ours was better. Lee Farnsworth ’12 fired up the team for this one, getting really vertical for crucial goals. Matt Heffley ’12 always seemed to be in the endzone right when he needed to be and scored.

Game #2

This second game was against California, and time seemed to stop. We dialed in even more heart for this game. Lee went to the endzone quite a lot and caught a lot of hucks for us. Lee also threw a high upline to Scott for a ridiculous snag. They threw a zone on our upwind points that we seemed to have trouble with.

We were tied up 14-14 on Universe on O but we lost the disc. When Cal got the disc back, their handler threw it into the ground trying to reset it. Awesome job Dartmouth Defense. We capitalized, scored and won the game.

Game #3

Our finals game was against University of Washington, which was ironic since Coach Brook “the duck” Martin used to coach Washington’s team. I imagine it was how Obi Wan felt when he had to battle his padawan. Every move by Dartmouth was matched by the other team. Their play style was similar to ours, and every Dartmouth player had his lookalike on the other team.

Washington had a good offense, with a deep game and a short game, but ours was just better. Lee could jump higher than anyone else on the field and he knew it, so when he was guarded as a deep in a UW zone, he just waved for Engler to pop it to him, which he did.

Adelstein always got his in cut like magic, including one where a UDUB player bid between him and the disc. Caleb played great as a handler, pivoting off Seattle markers and getting off the right throw for days.

On defense, we played fiery as ever, despite no gasoline left in the tank. Scott got a wonderful sky d ( he can jump!) from the endzone, despite a bad ankle, and Rosie got a timely in cut bid.

We finished that game smoothly 15-11, and won the tournament. Lee got the Skyd magazine MVP.

Next step Train.

*A Special thank you to Shmi Srinivasan ’11, Jing Jing Zhang ’11, Graham Baecher’10, Alex Kell’10 and Robin Meyers ’10 for hosting us in Boston before our flight.

Queen City Day 2

We came out firing on 22 cylinders in our opening game against Tufts.

The windy conditions caused a lot of zone on both sides and Dartmouth deservedly derailed Tufts offense for the most part with our hard working zone plan. There were a few points where they blasted through with quick throws, but for the most part we kept them honest, and even got an upwind break, and another d at their endzone. John Xu' 15, freshman handler played impressively for a couple high stakes zone points this game.

Score wise, Tufts got a couple more upwind breaks than we did, and that equalled the game for them 11-14. It might have only been 10-14, because of the hard cap, but we pushed for a final d point, and scored with Lee in the endzone. Golly. Thanks for pushing us RRI.

Coach Brook was happy with our game, for keeping Tufts on their toes, and for us getting way better than our last match in the fall. If Brook was happy, then so am I.

2nd game-University of Michigan.

This game we came roaring, keen not to slow down after our previous game, and we got two breaks in a row 2-0. We must have been a little flat though, because we turned the frisbee a lot and they scored and we never recaptured the lead.

Third game- Michigan State University

Engler didn't know whether to call these guys Michigan or Michigan State or what, so we settled for MSU. woo

Historically, Dartmouth hasn't been great after a hard loss Sunday morning. But this weekend we changed that with a win against MSU.

Our cool zone flustered MSU and they had trouble a few points getting it out of the endzone. If they threw it over the cup, our secondary was ready to d it. Dan Mott '12 had a crazy layout d in such a zone scenario. Our upwind conversions got better than they did against Tufts. Engler and Arthur Bledsoe got open at will behind the disc and apollo '13 blazed upline to score at least once or twice. Lee Usain Farnsworth '12 bolted to the endzone simply at will to catch a downwind homer or two.

We won 14-10. As said, this game was critical for changing our attitude towards tournament finales. I'd say we're pretty turned up after Tune Up for our next tournament, Pres Day in San Diego. See you in a couple days.

Queen City Day 1

We opened our eyes today, and we just saw something we like. A lot.

The Dartmouth Ultimate Pain Train team came to Charlotte for Queen City Tune Up this weekend. Green grass and hot temperatures and warm people greeted Dartmouth. Actually that’s all true except for the weather. It’s been windy and cold and right up the alley for these Hanover boys.

We had expensive miscues on our adventure thus far, like a speed ticket, and a flat tire. Lee made 87 dollars off Daniel Rosengard ’13 playing cards.

The van and bus made the 17+ hour trip from New Hampshire and got into the hotel Friday Night.

And now to Saturday. Our first game was against Cornell. We won against them at Huck a Hunk in the fall. They changed up zone and really strict man on us, but they just didn’t now how to contest coach Dr. Martin’s seattle slam plan. 7 points in a row. We beat them 13 to 4.

NYU Purple Haze- we sparred the Purple Haze hipsters and we had a fun game. The wind picked up something wicked , but the t’rain latched on a shimmering zone d. we got 83 cent marks and 29 cent marks and other things too ;)

Captain Mr. Engler threw quite an uncharacteristic scoober to Lee for a goal boom Lee would try his own scoober later in the day…

Carnegie Mellon- Our game against Carnegie Mellon came as the wind only got bigger. Caleb ’14 played great handler for us on O laying out for some crazy throws, and Nate Leherer ’14 got some stellar ds on our zone. We beat them 13 to 4 as well.

Last game of the day against UNC Dark Tide. This was a good game and we were a bit unprepared at first. They got a couple upwind breaks early on until we dialed in on the fact that we were playing a tremendous Frisbee game. Dan Rosengard ’13 was in a world lit by fire, duking it out with his UNC friends and hounding handlers in the zone. We got an upwind break with a ridiculous sky catch by local math stud Ian Adelstein, and after a couple more breaks we made it 6-5. Apollo ‘13 brought his war horse to this battle, playing rock hard as a handler and marching up the upwind line with comrade Engler to keep the team in the fight. Ultimately UNC’s throws were just a bit more dialed in then ours, and they won the game 9-6, although we won our pool because of point differential.

We await tomorrow, when we’ll open up with a game against Tufts.

Let the new season begin!

Welcome 15s!! And others too I guess.

For all you who don't know what Dartmouth Ultimate is all about, feel free to explore our website and learn more about the program.

Here's what's going on these days, and also looking forward into this Fall:

• During the 15s Orientation week (9/14 - 9/20) there will be lots of frisbee tossing on the green, with more organized Ultimate-like games (mainly "boot") going on at 2pm every day. This is a great opportunity to get to know some of the current players who are unbelievably eager to meet you, as well as fellow 15s.

• Practices are held Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 3-6pm at the Sachem fields (a mile down Main Street). There will be rides leaving from Dartmouth Hall at appx. 2:50 on those days. Practices will begin on Wed. or Fri. the first week of classes. No experience is required, and everyone is more than welcome to show up. There will be plenty of people there who have touched a disc once or twice or never, so don't worry about lacking experience! We will spend the first few practices teaching rules and fundamentals so that by week 2, everyone's on the same page. If you want to know when practices start, see the next bullet point.
  

• Get on our blitz list! If you want to know what's going on in the Dartmouth Ultimate community, you should absolutely send a blitz to muf@dartmouth.edu saying that you want to join the blitz list. That way you will receive information about when people are tossing, playing on the green, and when we're having practices.

We look forward to seeing you out there!