After a wild day chock-full of universe point games and upsets, we only have one question to ask: chat, is this real?
May 26, 2024 by Edward Stephens, Alex Rubin, Bridget Mizener, Grace Conerly and Theresa Diffendal in Opinion, Recap with 0 comments
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At big Ultiworld events, we always chat it up a couple times a day as a full reporting and editorial staff: to coordinate, to stay excited for the duration of a long shift, to brainstorm potential evening articles, to blow off steam. On Saturday of Nationals, the dominant idea on everyone’s mind was how alive we all felt witnessing such a spectacular day of ultimate.
So we figured that instead of giving you more concept pieces that are products of those regular chats — we’d just give you the chat. Hope you enjoyed the action on Saturday as much as we did, and thanks for reading!
First, set the scene for today. What had to fall into place for all of it to happen?
Edward Stephens (Senior Staff Writer): They say there’s a silver lining behind every rain cloud, don’t they? The fact that almost all of Friday’s play was weathered-out condensed most of pool play into a single day. That’s a lot of action. I’m not doing the math or anything but … maybe 40% more games? We essentially got a two-fer.
Bridget Mizener (Staff Writer): You credit the condensed schedule, but isn’t that just a symptom? The underlying cause was this:
Not only did Friday’s forty days and forty nights vibe set up the college ultimate marathon you describe, the hellish conditions really make you appreciate a beautiful 70º-and-sunny day like today. Frisbee is great, and it’s especially great when the elements cooperate.
Edward: True. There wasn’t even much wind to speak of.
Alex Rubin (Senior Staff Writer): We’d be remiss not to shout out the Madison area volunteers and the staff at USA Ultimate for working overtime to reschedule the games that did not happen yesterday and to line enough additional fields to get all of the games in. That’s no small feat and could easily get overlooked by the thrilling results we saw today. After some teams did not get to play and others only got their one game in bits and pieces, there was a genuine excitement to see blue skies as the players stepped on the field.
Grace Conerly (Staff Writer): A sense of parity in both divisions hasn’t hurt either. There was no team in the men’s or women’s division that had an undefeated regular season, and now it feels like there are two to four teams in each division that have a legitimate claim to the title. Close matchups, awesome weather, and a ton of games, what’s not to love?
No squirming, no equivocating — what was the wildest result of the day?
D-I College Championships 2024: Chat Is This Real? The Best Day of College Ultimate Ever is only available to Ultiworld Subscribers
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