College Central Regionals

College Central Regionals has come and gone and again the top 3 teams were Wisconsin, Carleton, and Minnesota, with Minnesota on the outside looking in. All in all, it was a fairly boring weekend. Even the most exciting game, CUT vs. Minnesota semi, was frustrating to watch. With CUT ahead 9-8, there was a 2 turnover, 25 minute point in which there were rarely 2 consecutive passes without a stoppage. Minnesota did have the lead 11-10, game to 13, but CUT scored 3 of the next 4 to win.

The most interesting part of the weekend for me was that I was an official observer for the first time. In all, I did 4 games, including the finals. I had been scheduled to do the Whitewater-Minnesota game, but Whitewater understandably denied my role as an observer. "He used to spike it on us," was their quote, I believe. That I spiked it on them often, regularly, or even more than once is not true. That I spiked it ON TOP of one of the their players exactly one time is 100% true. We had had a series of heated games against Whitewater from 2002 to 2004 and I scored 2 throws after another big rules argument at Hallowinona 2003. I meant to stand up and spike it but the disc accidentally flew out of my hands and right into the Whitewater player. That's the closest I've gotten to getting into an ultimate related fight. What's especially funny/stupid about all that is the previous Spring, one of their players basically punched me while marking me. There used to be a video of it on the U of M site that showed exactly what happened, but it's since been taken down. Bottom line, I footblocked Scotty "the Body" and he punched the ground a bunch of times, got up, put the mark on me, and slapped the bottom of the disc and slapped it into my face. I didn't even raise my voice. I just said "what was that?" No answer and play continued. So, lesson is, make bad calls and I will retaliate foolishly, punch me in the face and I won't care.

The Championship wasn't much of a game. Heijman made a couple nice catches. Dan Miller made some good D's. Goldstein turned it over a few times. Goldstein also subbed out on an injury time out where his legged got rolled over on game point on the doorstep of an upwind score. He called in FOTY mentionable Sam Kanner, who proceeded to throw it away, then later drop a pass. Michael Arenson for FOTY.

For me, the most interesting moment in the game was when Shane "who else here hates" Hohenstein got hit by someone else. He was looking to throw deep as his mark was catching up and he pump faked the throw. His mark ran into him pretty hard. Total accident, but the Wisconsin sideline EXPLODED. F-bombs started flying and both teams were exactly one comment away from receiving a Team Misconduct Foul. I don't currently have a strong opinion on Shane one way or another, but the times I've played against him in the past (2 years ago), he was as reckless a player as I've ever seen. I just found the situation immensely ironic. If my memory serves me correctly, Shane stayed on the field and his defender took an injury. How dare you hurt someone by standing in an avoidable spot in their path, Shane. How dare you.

St. Johns expanded their growing reputation of unnecessarily pissing everyone off. You can now append Iowa State, Iowa, and UMD to the list of teams that dislike St. Johns.

Overall, a pretty boring weekend of college ultimate. Is it too soon be looking forward to next year?