The 2024 DU club ultimate frisbee season officially kicked off last weekend. In their first competitive action since last April, Denver sent three teams to compete in the 40th annual New Year’s Fest tournament in Phoenix, Ariz.
The Denver men’s A team, Sourdough, accompanied by Hype (women’s) and Grain Train (men’s B), flew into Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport last Friday evening with differing expectations, but the same goal. Having tasted DU victory last year with Hype’s electric win over the University of Arizona in the final match, all three squads dreamed of bringing another title back home to Denver.
Sourdough, having experienced very little roster turnover from the previous season, had perhaps the highest hopes as the sun rose on the first day of the tournament, in which they would play in no fewer than four games.
The day started out with a bang. A comfortable 13-6 win against Brigham Young University’s B team was followed by a 12-7 victory over the University of Kansas, made closer by a 5-point run by Kansas in the final twenty minutes.
Another 12-7 final, this time over Arizona, had the Doughboys riding high into their final matchup of the day. A hard-fought battle under the lights against University of Colorado’s B team ended in the weekend’s first defeat for Sourdough, a 10-12 final.
On Sunday, Sourdough once again came out of the gate sprinting. They flattened Northern Arizona by a score of 13-4, fueled by the tension that brewed between the two teams as the game got more and more out of hand. Team president and senior Khaled Mahmoud’s game winning goal and inflammatory celebration caused some unpleasant words to be exchanged among DU and NAU, but the Doughboys jogged away victorious into their semifinal matchup.
Colorado School of Mines has been one of Sourdough’s most frustrating rivals in recent years. Sadly, the frustration continued, with a heartbreaking 8-11 loss dashing the hopes of a first place finish for the Doughboys.
Out of gas, sunburnt and injury-ridden, Sourdough fought to a 6-13 loss in a rematch with CU. The Doughboys finished in 4th place—not what they were dreaming of, but, according to head coach Phil Lohre, it’s something to build off of.
“We don’t expect perfection,” said Lohre. He’s talking about what he calls a “growth mindset:” the idea that Sourdough is continuously improving and learning. “Our focus is on a positive, supportive practice rather than a specific outcome,” he said.
Standouts for Sourdough included the rookie trio of freshmen Noah Alleman, Campbell Willmuth and sophomore Dalton Ward. Their calm demeanor when handling the disc made Lohre and assistant coach Sandford Brown more than comfortable to let them run the offense at times, leading to long stretches where nobody else on the field came close to touching the disc.
“I feel great,” said Alleman after one game. “I feel like we’re building something. It’s just the beginning.”
Mahmoud agreed. “It feels like we’re building a sand castle, and for years we forgot how to do that, and we never made the sand moist or wet, and now finally we’ve added some water and there’s a bit of structure and substance to this,” he said.
In the women’s side of the bracket, which was smaller but no less competitive than the men’s side, Hype was given the tall task of defending their 2023 New Year’s Fest title.
It was almost a year ago to the day that Malea Marxer caught a lofty throw from superstar Allison Owen to take down the U of A 8-7 and cap off an undefeated weekend. But Hype has experienced some earth-shaking roster turnover since that game, with Owen graduating alongside other impactful players like Miki Climer and Daphne West.
Marxer, now a veteran on the team despite playing their first competitive college ultimate game last year in Phoenix, helped lead a tentative march into what would prove to be a hard-fought weekend. To make things tougher, their head coach, former pro player Sten Larson, was not able to make the trip to Phoenix.
“We knew it was going to be a bigger challenge with having such a strong group of players graduate last year and not having our coach there,” said junior Liv Rathsack, vice president of Hype and one of the team’s best defenders.
Hype’s campaign started with a spirited 7-10 loss to NAU, followed by a heartbreaking loss on a winner-take-all point to the U of A, 8-9. In the ultimate frisbee community, this is called a universe point, something that DU teams have often struggled with historically.
A character-defining 11-6 victory over Arizona’s B team sent Hype to their fourth and final game of the day, which they lost to Grand Canyon University 5-9. The smaller bracket size meant that pool play continued into Sunday morning, where they experienced yet another universe point loss to San Diego State by a final score of 6-7, before finishing the weekend with a low-scoring but triumphant 7-3 win versus Arizona State.
Rathsack had a positive outlook on her team’s multiple close losses. “It was definitely tough,” she said. “But we knew that we worked hard for each point and left it out on the field. Each game was a learning experience that we will have to go through, whether it’s a good outcome or not.”
Outstanding play from the several rookies on the team was the story of the weekend for Hype, including defensive freshman standouts Larissa Olson and Ellie Otradosky. Having never played in a college ultimate tournament before, and with big shoes to fill, they looked right at home from the very first match of the weekend.
“Adapting to whatever conditions we are in is something that Hype is really good at,” Rathsack said. “We just need to keep pushing harder and stay focused.”
The third and final DU team to make the voyage to Phoenix was Grain Train, the men’s B team. In just their third season in existence and second with a distinct team name, the players on Grain Train looked to improve over the weekend, borrowing the growth mindset from Sourdough.
In a point that took over twenty minutes of back-and-forth action, it was sophomore Levi Steadman’s steady forehand shot to freshman Daniel Meekin that gave them the win in their first game, defeating ASU’s B team by a score of 10-7.
“I feel fantastic,” said an out-of-breath Steadman after the goal. “I love Sourdough, I love frisbee.”
Unfortunately, Grain Train had to face what would prove to be the two strongest teams in the tournament in their next two matches: Utah Valley and Colorado Mines, who they lost to 13-1 and 13-4 respectively. Another 13-4 defeat, this time by NAU, sent the Train back to the station for rest and recovery.
The next day, limited by howling winds mostly unfamiliar to the fresh-faced Grain Train players, saw losses to both Arizona (3-9) and ASU B (4-9). Tensions flared in the latter match when ASU players, desperate for their first win of the weekend, wasted time by throwing the disc over the fence and taking unnecessary timeouts.
Despite the disappointing record, Grain Train has every reason to be happy with how they played in the tournament. Several players established themselves further, including the high-scoring sophomore Mac O’Brien and shifty, speedy sophomore Jackson Eddy.
Teddy Carr, who graduated from DU in 2021 only to come back to coach Grain Train, couldn’t be prouder of his players.
“We were fundamentally sound, we played really hard,” he said. “The wind was playing against us… we know we need more reps in [it].”
Exhausted, the players and coaches of Sourdough, Hype and Grain Train flew back into Denver on Sunday evening, for the most part satisfied with the weekend. While nobody from DU tasted a New Year’s Fest title this time around, that growth mindset will always be on their minds, preparing them for the next tournament.
