by Mike Mullen

Despite the threat of showers predicted by area weather forecasters, the skies remained partly cloudy all weekend long for the first annual UPA Washington State High School Ultimate Championships at the beautiful Skagit River Park in Burlington on May 8th and 9th. The lush, green fields were marked with bright, orange cones. Event central was adorned with fruit, bagels, peanut butter, and jam. The parking lot was full of school busses. Tournament Director Meredith Tosta had set a wonderful scene for the twelve teams in attendance.

Girl's Division was comprised of five teams. The current UPA eligibility guidelines were used to increase participation (%50 of team members must attend a single school). The Northwest School and Nathan Hale High School were represented by single school teams. A combination team of players from Seattle Academy and Lakeside also drove up from Seattle for the tournament. Deluge, last year's semi-finalists at the UPA High School Championships held in Birmingham, AL, was comprised of players mostly from the Northwest School at States. Because Oregon did not hold it's own UPA Championship Lilith, a team from Eugene, OR, was also awarded a bid to States.

The ladies played a round robin format to win places in the semi finals. There were four rounds on Saturday and one on Sunday. Games were played to 13 with 90 minutes given per round. One highlight of pool play was a stunning 13-6 victory by Nathan Hale over top seeded Deluge in the first round on Saturday. Deluge rebounded to win the remainder of their placement games including a well played 10-6 contest against Lilith in some stiff wind late in the day.

By virtue of going undefeated in pool play, Nathan Hale advanced directly into the Finals to play the winner of a rematch between Deluge and Lilith. Some say that it's hard to beat the same team twice in a tournament, and this weekend was no exception. In a back and forth game that saw the teams trading downwind goals, Deluge emerged the victors by a score of 12-11 at the cap.

The Girl's Division Final was another highly anticipated rematch. Playing with only an 8 person roster led by Claire & Molly Suver and Shannon O'Malley, Nathan Hale was fired up and ready to play the determined Deluge team captained by Nora Johnson and Rebecca Guiao. The raucous cheering from both teams that started the game gave way to loud voices on the biggest sideline of the tournament.

This was a very close game which featured a shifting wind and no lead bigger than two goals. With the count at 11-10 for Hale and the cap on at 12, Deluge pulled the disc hoping to get a chance to score an upwind goal to tie. They got that chance when Mesa Schumacher made a layout D on dump pass near the Deluge end zone. However, on the ensuing possession the attempted scoring pass was just a little out of reach. A calm and confident Nathan Hale proceeded to work the disc down the field for the winning score and the Championship.

Special congratulations go out to Lilith from Oregon. This tournament was the first time that they had played together as a team. Their outstanding play showed much promise for better results in the future. Additional cheers go to the girls from the Seattle Academy/Lakeside team which took home the Spirit of the Game Award with a near perfect spirit score. Way to go!

UPA eligibility rules were also used in the seven team Open Division in which all team members attended the same school. The Northwest School brought up two teams to compete with teams from Nathan Hale, Eastlake, Seattle Academy, Lakeside, and Garfield High School.

The boys played a full round robin with each team playing six games over the course of eight rounds finishing up by lunch time on Sunday. Games were played to 11 in 80 minute rounds. In what proved to be a very competitive division, there were eight games decided by two points or less. Amazingly, three teams (Nathan Hale, Eastlake, and Lakeside) finished tied for 2nd after pool play with identical 4-2 records - and 1-1 records against each other! The specifics of the UPA tie breakers were invoked to produce the semi final matchups.

The Northwest School A team finished at the top of the heap and held on to their number one seed in the elimination rounds. In a pairing of two teams that would later go on to compete at the High School Championships in Corvallis, Northwest defeated #4 seed Nathan Hale in the first semi final by score of 13-5.

The other semi final was a rematch of the "lakes": Lakeside versus Eastlake. In the first game of round robin play, Eastlake defeated the Lions 10-9 at the cap. Captained by Dutch Hixenbaugh, Eastlake's long game starring Sam Windham was tough to contain throughout the tournament. Unable to turn the tide in the semis, Lakeside fell again to Eastlake by a count of 13-10. The exuberance of the Lakeside boys cannot be denied, however, as evidenced by their capture of the Spirit of the Game Award for the Open Division.

The Northwest School looked impressive in the finals defeating an injury depleted Eastlake team 13-5. These teams were familiar rivals having already met each other several times in league play during the spring. Knowing that Eastlake primary threat is their deep game, Northwest played a lot of zone defense to counter the long attack. Senior Darya Saber was the key player in the zone at the deep deep position, and he created lots of turns with his dominating play in the air. Jaen Gomez-Cervantes (Senior) and Philip Benjamin (Junior) were the catalysts for their transition offense which was able to take advantage of those turnovers. All weekend long, Northwest was strong on both sides of the disc. They were able to work the disc on offense even in windy conditions, and they played a stifling defense that frustrated the opposition. This young Northwest team is only graduating three players and will be worth watching again next year.

Good luck to all the Seniors who will continue the tradition of outstanding juniors ultimate in the Northwest as they make their way into the college ranks.

A huge thank you goes out to all the players, coaches, parents, volunteers, and fans who helped make this a successful event!