I am at my first US college-level Ultimate tournament. It is called Aggie Classic, hosted by Texas A&M. Here’s a recap of day 1.

Game 1: UTD 4 - 13 UTSA (University of Texas at San Antonio)

  • I made a mediocre pass, but gained one yard offense! I should have stepped outside (including fakes).
  • In the first point, I chose a much stronger player to defend. Bad luck.
  • UTSA played the horizontal stack, which the newbies and I never heard of before.
  • I was very short of breath until I made liquid-iv for myself. It just works.

Game 2: UTD 7 - 6 Texas Tech University (!!)

  • Successfully defended once!!! Got cheered by teammates. The best feeling ever.
  • Score once by running to the open side in the end-zone vert stack. Again, best feeling.
  • This is officially the first win of a team where I’m in in a tournament.

Game 3: UTD 8 - 11 Texas State University

  • They were much better than us, but we scored a continuous 4-5 points in the second half.
  • I got stomach cramp, probably by drinking too much water. I called injury (instead of insisting to be on the field). That helped the team. Ultimate is pretty much a selfless sport.
  • I chose a short (but actually very fast) guy to defend. First time, I could not follow him closely and let him score. Second time, when we just pulled, I ran towards him assuming he would be in their stack. But he was running deep and they immediately scored because I could not follow him. I quit defending him afterwards.

Game 4: UTD 2 - 13 Texas A&M

  • They are probably the strongest team in the tournament. Never panic, never rush. Played ultimate like a breeze.
  • In a point where they forced backhand, I (almost) give-and-go’ed with a friend pretty well. Sadly we got turned over eventually.

Further technicalities:

  • I was handling an upfield cut once. It was a failed throw because I release low while we were going down-wind. I should have paied more attention to the wind.
  • I am defending okay in a classic vert stack. I lowered my body, stayed in the force side the whole time, actively shuffled, avoided looking away from my mark. Our coaches taught us well.