Date: Tue, 1 Jun 1999 09:56:09 -0400 (EDT) From: Timothy John Murray To: ann.arbor.ultimate@umich.edu cc: magnum99@umich.edu, flywheelers@umich.edu Subject: nationals Message-ID: Here it is. This was written on the notepad application so I am not sure how it will look. Enjoy... Hello all. I start to write this in Iowa, thus our trip is not completely finished, but here is the story of magnUM and Boulder. It began for 12 of us on Monday morning as we packed up a maxi and mini van and headed out of AA. We started collecting beanie babies early and often. It was a nice drive, especially when we (the maxi van) were in Des Moines and the mad driving skills of Jeff, the sign "You aren't lesbians, are you?", and a cell phone allowed us to hang out with some Grinnel chicks at the mall. We continued on with our journey and met up with the mini van in Nowhere, Nebraska and Rook had the fattest salad ever. After more driving, some deer running onto the highway, and a huge storm, we finally arrived at the humble abode of Dave Hunter's home in Colorado Springs at 4:30 am. Let me just say this, Mr and Mrs Hunter are the nicest people ever. First of all, 12 people (mainly undergrads, mind you) that you have never met show up that early in the morning and they were glad to see us. Second, we had the biggest dinner on Tuesday nits, literally a keg of lasagna. Just the overall hospitality was just terrific. Anyway, after Jeff and I were awoken by the garbage truck at 8:30 am, everyone slowly awoke out of our unconsciouness. We visited Garden of Gods and Manitou Springs during a very dreary day. We had a small practice type thing to get used to the altitude. We ran some drills and eventually ended when Rook point blocked a Jarvis throw with his ear. Ouch. We then returned to the Hunter house, ate the huge dinner, and most of us fell into a food coma. Wednesday saw us making quite a few trips to the airport and gathering at O.D.'s new, well furnished condo in Boulder. We found some fields to get a decent practice on. Kev and Graves arrived from Houston early and toured around Boulder and hung out at Make-Out field with the high schoolers. Hales, Chris and I went back to the airport to get more magnUMites. We also visited Applebee's about 8 or 10 times or something. We went back and stayed at O.D.'s for the nite. Thursday we awoke and decided to have another short practice with the new guys in town. Afterwards, some went to Daddy Bruce's for some lunch, and others went to the fields to see the splendid national fields. They were beautiful and the scenery was alright as well. We checked into the hotel. After the captain's went 3 hours too early to the captain's meeting, we came back and went to eat. We went back to the captain's meeting at the right time and it was so long and drawn out. We also recieved like a 50 pound player pack with underwear, cliff bars, programs, etc. for everyone. Eventually at about midnite, we were finally altogether and in bed (not together), waiting to play some ultimate. Friday we woke up at 6, went to Denny's and arrived on a beautiful day at the soccer fields. Our first game was against Rice and we came firing. Our first point involved a big throw and then Angus to me for the score. The next point would have been the first bizmark in the history of magnUM but they did away with that rule (bizmark = defensive score). I intercepted their first pass in their endzone. Marched it out and then we scored 2-0. After our big start, we cooled off a little bit and they made it close. I personally had one great point of 3 turns. Our defense finally started to wake up in the second half. Dave Pohl almost had a layout D. Phil had a greatest spike. The rookies were running and playing hard. The offense was a little shaky, but started to come together. THis game started our second halves of excellence. Good old of Joe threw the winning score on a nice forehand up the line. magnUM 15 Rice 10. Out next game was agianst Cornell. They were a little more experienced in the Nationals department, but we were ready to play them. This time we came out a little more sluggish. The discs were flying far and high. Our first score was a stall ten blading, high release that Jeff caught. They attempted to play Z, but we were able to work it, except for Jeff stepping on the line. Wu kept helping out deep and getting the d's. We only had a two point lead, but we had came out hard and had some good d. One point involved Phil going deep on a 4' 6" guy and yelling "Timmy, look at this" as he pointed down at his defender. Of course, I threw it high and long to him. We scored. They made a small run at the end of the game, but we closed them out 15-11 or 12 with a Wu throw to me that I barreled roled into the endzone. After a bye, we had to play Brown. This time we seemed a little more intimidated then at Yale, and they went out on us 3-0. We just had some mental farts, but we eventually scored after Dave Hunter stripped from the disc from me in the endzone. The rest of the first half was very similar. They seemed like the schoolyard bully taking the from the little first graders. Forch, the Callahan MVP, and myself were going deep for this long disc that seemed to me would be way out of bounds. I began to slow up, but he continued and somehow caught the disc and dragged his left foot for 2 inches before the outside line. It was the most outstanding catch until a play later in the game. At the half, it was 8-4 with Brown on top. They would start on O and we got the D early. The disc was thrown to me and then a huck to good old Rook for the score. A brand new half, ladies and gentleman. The half went more like this. We got the score close, 11-8 and 12-10. Their were some unbelieveable plays in that run. Michael Joseph Jaeger had the most unbelievable play that I have ever witnessed. After a beautiful pull by Karl (they got the disc 20 yards outside of their endzone), a forehand was thrown to Jaeger's man about 4 feet high. Then Jaeger launched himself in the air, horizontally 4 feet high (we have an awesome picture of this), and CAUGHT the layout d. He the got up, got fouled on a huck to me, and then to Rook for the score. Another phenomenial play was Dave Hunter d'ing Justin from Brown and then my hammer to him for the score. Double burn. That brought it 12-10. I was then skiied. Then they scored again. Then they scored again. Final: Brown 15 magnUM 10. The slow start killed us, but we definitely showed something in the second half. We were disappointed, but 2-1 was not bad. Friday nite saw us wait for free food at the fields. Then we went back to the hotel and basically just sat around and eventually went to sleep after a late nite Wendy's man. We awoke Saturday for the prequarters against North Carolina. This was the big game to advance to the quarters. We came out again sluggish and saw ourselves down early. We came back this time to tie with some spectacular plays. I had a big backhand that Chris Scott laid out and grabbed in the endzone. A beautiful Hales to Phil huck. A Phil hammer to Paul in the endzone. Jaeger was all over the place, almost matching his Brown d, with the almost layout D near the endzone. We had it at 10s. We then fell apart. Paul and Phil played some great D late. Just some costly mistakes late in the game on the simple parts of the game. The slow start killed us. Final score: NC 15 magnUM 11. We were eliminated from the championship, but we could still play for 9th. We had a rematch vs. Rice. We came out, *sluggish* again, with them leading 4-1. We then made a big run. The rookies definitely stepped up there game. Palmer threw a beautiful forehand up the line for a score. Alex, Raj, and Dave P. were playing some hot d. Someone got Karl pissed off and that guy I do not think touched the disc the rest of the game. My first scoober throwaway of the tourney. Phil had his second greates spike of the tourney. Rook's swill huck was caught for a score. Phil had a tremendous huck to Joe. At 11-9, there were some lightning strikes and the game went through like a 2 hour rain delay. Now most people think rain delays are boring, except us. WE made it entertaining for everyone. Good old Kevin was back in town and well he let everyone know that he was there. How did he do that, you may ask. Well, it expected the bet and money to streak (that means run naked) around the fields. It was not raining, but a bit chilly, so everyone was in their cars. They were all soon outside when Kevin started his 5 minute jaunt around the fields. Oh man, that inspired us, let me tell you. Shortly after, the rain delay ended and we came out ready to play for good old Kevin. They tried z, but we would crush that. Everyone was in sink and we stormed out. We ended to game quick and painless. Final score: magnUM 15 Rice 10. After that, we were in the consolation semis against good old Oberlin. They seemed a little more pumped to play this game than us, but we came out well. We went up early 4-1 with plays like Raj cutting for my hammer, as any rookie should do and just all around chilly offense to convert on the turns. As the game progressed it seemed that our d got a little lazier and O a little less chilly. Stupid turnovers and continually getting beat to the line forced us to give ourselves a little gutcheck, but we still had a little lead at half. The second half saw the wind come into play making it an upwind downwind game. We had the first advantage, but they scored an upwinder and we did not answer that, thus they would take a slight advantage 11-10. They tried to play z to slow the game down, but we worked it well downwind and another hammer by me to Dave Hunter tied the score. We finally got decent position on the upwind and out of the timoeout, Karl burned his man to make the score 12-11 and they were now going upwind. Jaeger had a huge pull and the cup of Palmer, Karl, and Dave Pohl, kept the Oberlin handlers in the endzone for about 30 throws until they finally turned it over for a very easy score. We would again score upwind, this time my hammer was not as successful. I attempted to throw it to Palmer upwind, but it did that double helix thing, but as the disc was blading away from Palmer, he laid out and caught it and stayed in bounds. Very impressive. We would score upwind and then play z. Again, we kept them in the endzone and won with another easy score, magnUM 15 Oberlin 11. After our game, we finished watching the semis to see NC State beating Brown and UCSB beating Carleton. We met at the hotels and went to the party, which unfortunately did not give free beer, but featured a long speech by Kenny Dobbyns and a pretty cool band. It also involved some magnum 40's. Some of us participated more than others (wu, karl, j). We woke up on SUnday a little groggier than most days, but had one more game for 9th against arch nemesis Iowa. Karl was out to prove the theory that he plays better hung over and Wu was just happy to be able to run. We were able to convince the TD's to let us play on the good field that was only supposed to be used for the finals. Thus, we were the test game. We came out hard and the 2 drunk boys, Wu & Karl, were playing spectacular d. Karl with some huge layouts and Wu with a couple hand blocks. Our offense was working pretty well. Chris Scott successful long as usual. Jaegs and I hooking up early and often. Jaegs was not hooking up with Reiskind that well. At one point, as Mike was cutting for Jaeger, Jaegs looked him off and Mike was a little testy. Jaegs eventually threw the score and ran right to Reiks and said "Hey Mike. I STILL LOVE YOU MAN. I STILL LOVE YOU!" Pretty funny. It was the defense that kept us in the game and after Rook saved my ass on a huck, we took half 8-6. They came out with a new strategy which was play z. We worked it well, but some small drops tied up the game. The rest of the game saw us played well against their z and convert on the oppurtunities. The team defense stepped up as well and we were able to pull out to a 2 point lead. Again, a Jaegs invert to me long and a Jaegs hammer to Chris (acutally Jaegs ordered CHris to cut for it). Also, they could not stop our offense and we marched it down the field. At 14-13, I lost 16 fantasy points as I tried to end the game with a hammer to Paul that Michael Johnson could not have caught (yes I threw a lot of hammers and yes some of them were not completed) and they tied it up 14-14, cap at 17... We scored the next point as Jeff made a huge grab in a crowd and then I believe Paul finished the job with the score. Thus 15-14 us. We came out with a good pull and had them trapped. Rook had a great mark and forced a hammer to the dump that was not caught. For the first time ever, I told Rook to pick up the disc and he threw it to me for the game and ninth place. magnUM 16 Iowa 14. Well, 9th place. It was not my goal going into the tournament, but it feels very good. We improved from a team that was eliminated early on Sunday last year at Regionals to the 9th best team in the country. Personally, it felt good to win a game at nationals and play with the best teams in the country with the best 25 guys in the country. Everyone loves the way that we play. We were told by more than one person that we were the most fun games to take pictures of, we can show you if you want. All of our games were intense, yet very spirited. Every game was close. Just ask Brown and NC, I guarantee that we were in each of those games until the last point. A couple of interesting stats: We finished the college rankings 12th at the end of season, which is the highest place I think Michigan has ever achieved in Ultimate. Final Recore: 31-7. Not bad, eh? Out of the 7 games that we lost, we never los by more than 5 and combined lost 7 games by a combined 18 points. Pretty damn good. A little more experience and who knows where we can go... Anyway, the rest of the time was pretty fun. We basically just chilled that nite drank a little heard old tuka/magnUM stories. Listened to a couple of J stories and Palmer stories as well. We think Palmer has the best potential to Be Jay. We awoke early on Monday. arrainged rides to the airport and such and then departed. I just got in at about 9 am. THus I am really tired and I feel like ending this e-mail. It was not that eventful of a ride, but it was fun. The season was awesome and we accomplished a lot. The seed has been planted, now we must help the tradition grow. It has been an exciting year and we plan to make next year even better. Thank you to everyone in AA for the support over the past semester. Take care and I am sure I will see you all around. TIM