Lincoln Plews
Senior Sports Writer
For the first time in its nine-year history, Wooster’s women’s ultimate team, known as Betty Gone Wild, will compete in the Division III National Championships after qualifying at the Regional Championships over the weekend.
The women placed second out of six teams at the Regional Championships to take the last qualifying spot, coming in behind Haverford College but ahead of teams from Kenyon College, Lehigh University, Messiah College and Oberlin College.
The weekend of games in Edinboro, Pennsylvania began with BGW facing off against Lehigh University. Lehigh jumped out to an early 7-4 lead, but Wooster battled back to tie the game 10-10 at the end of regulation time. Ultimate operates on a sudden death overtime rule, and the final point scored to win the game is known as the “universe point.” Wooster scored the universe point to take their first game 11-10.
The Scots dropped their next game against Haverford College 10-6 but went on to beat Oberlin 9-6 and Messiah College 10-9 to finish at 3-1 on the first day.
The second day of games began with a decisive 13-6 win over Kenyon, but BGW’s momentum would be stymied by a tough 14-3 loss to Haverford in their next game.
The team’s potential trip to Nationals came down to their last game of the weekend, a final showdown against Kenyon. Betty Gone Wild got a big momentum boost early in the game from Thea Kwan ’17, who laid out in the end-zone to give Wooster a 1-0 lead.
From there on out BGW slowly pulled away from Kenyon, eventually gaining a 14-8 lead in the match where the first team to 15 wins. The final blow was fittingly delivered on a pass from junior captain Claire Ramey to senior captain Abby VanLeuven, giving Betty Gone Wild the 15-8 win. “When Abby caught the disc for the win everyone came running in from the sidelines and that was very special,” said Ramey of the play.
Ramey credits the team’s success to their focus on team unity and a singular goal. “When we play we are all there to support each other, to work hard, to be the best and to have the most fun. We started dreaming about going to Nationals three years ago, so this has been something we have been working towards for a long time.”
Betty Gone Wild will compete with 31 other teams for the USA Ultimate National Championship at the Westerville Sports Complex in beautiful Westerville, Ohio on May 17-18.