Recap of Open Division by USA Ultimate

APPLETON, Wis.--This past weekend, The Gods of Plastic (GOP) one of Carleton’s men’s ultimate teams traveled to Appleton, Wis., to compete in USA Ultimate’s D-III national championship. 

The GOP did not disappoint, and despite being seeded seventh in a field of 16, GOP rolled over the competition, losing zero games, and bringing the D-III open ultimate title back to Carleton.  GOP previously won D-III titles in 2009 and 2010.

Saturday pool play went smoothly for GOP as they defeated Rensselaer Polytechnic Institutute (RPI), Wake Forest and the overall second seed Kenyon College (Ohio) by substantial margins. (No team managed to score more than nine points on GOP in games played to fifteen.)  Sunday saw GOP playing against St. John’s University, the tournament’s overall one seed, in the quarterfinals.  A regional rival, GOP had played St. Johns three times previously this season, and had lost each contest.  This time, however, GOP came out firing, defeating SJU, 14-8.  The semifinals went just as smoothly, with GOP defeating North Park University (Ill.), 15-6.

With that win, GOP punched their ticket to the finals where it played the University of Puget Sound (Wash.).  With the winds picking up, teams traded downwind points until GOP finally broke upwind and then downwind to take a lead. UPS got those breaks back and led at the half, 8-7. 

The score stayed equally close until the final points of the game where GOP patiently worked the disc up the field against the wind until Rhys Lindmark ’13 (Denver, Colo.) found Jonathan Isaac ‘12 (Libertyville, Ill.) in the end zone to go ahead, 13-12.  With the wind at their backs (literally), GOP easily converted the next point to seal the national title.

This past weekend was GOP’s third national championship in four years, and Carleton’s seventh total national championship between the four nationally competitive teams.