Ian Ricoy
Sports Editor
Both of Wooster’s ultimate Frisbee teams had tournaments over the weekend. Wooster’s men’s team, Ram Jam, won their tournament, while Wooster’s women’s team, Betty Gone Wild, gained valuable experience for their new members. Both tournaments were unofficial and both teams took the opportunity to give their new players experience and to build team chemistry. Ram Jam traveled to Kenyon College for their first tournament of the year.
The Ram Jam team morale was high, even though the tournament was unofficial.
“This was what we call a ‘learnament’ so we just went to get playing experience and to have fun,” said team captain Jonah Kadens ’21. Ram Jam opened up against the Ohio Wesleyan University (OWU) Firedogs in a tight match in their pool. Ram Jam was neck-and-neck with OWU, trading points until the score was 6-7 OWU at the half. Wooster pulled ahead by the end to win their first game of the season 9-8. Ram Jam started their next game against Kenyon Serf hot with a 4-1 lead early in the game, but lost in the waning moments 10-11. Both games came down to universe points or “sudden death.” The last game of the first day was against Denison University where Ram Jam fell 9-13. Though Wooster ended the day 1-2, Kadens said, “Our team did an amazing job of keeping the energy up throughout the tournament even when we got tired.” The team took the down time to come back “well-rested,” said Brodie Hufnagel ’20.
Ram Jam’s second day proved to be a much better outing. In their rematch with Kenyon, Ram Jam put up a 7-5 lead at the half and proceeded to score six more while holding Kenyon to only two points resulting in a 13-8 victory. Wooster repeated their win in the bracket game against Kenyon, this time winning 9-4 to win the whole tournament. Overall, Ram Jam went 4-2 to win their first tournament of the season. Their overall point differential was 57-44 for the weekend which could signal a great season ahead for Ram Jam. “The team, and especially our rookies, played amazingly the entire weekend,” said Kadens. “This was one of the most fun tournaments that many of us have ever played in and it was also one of the strongest performances that our team has ever had at a learnament.”
Betty traveled to Cleveland, Ohio for their first unofficial tournament along with Fredonia, Case Western Reserve University (CWRU), University of Akron, Ohio Northern University and Allegheny College. Betty had their first game against Case Western where Ellie Kahn ’20 scored for Wooster’s first point of the game to make it 1-3. Unfortunately, Betty fell to Case Western 2-13 in the end of a 25 minute game. Their second game against Fredonia got off to a similar start with Betty trailing 2-7 at the half. While Betty fell to Fredonia 9-2 in the end, they only allowed two points from Fredonia in the second half. Despite these results, Betty didn’t waiver in their spirits “Our team is known as having high spirits and a positive attitude,” said Kahn.
What really mattered for Betty was building a bond with the new rookies.
“The tournament was exciting because it was our first time really playing together as a team,” said Kahn, “We’ve spent the last month getting back into practicing and teaching our rookies the logistics of the game, so to see all of what we’ve worked on come together was awesome.” Overall the tournament was “a fun learning tournament for frisbee beginners and frisbee returners,” according to captain Maddie Smith ’20.
Both teams took the weekend to build their chemistry and show the basics of the game to their new players. “We are looking forward to an incredible season of improvement, fun and competition,” said Kadens. Smith echoed Kadens’ statement saying, “It was a fun tournament to attend to get new players used to the game and ultimate Frisbee rules!”