Carolina Kudzu Coed Classic results

 

WOFOIT HOSONIT!

 

The Triangle’s own WOFOIT played the entire weekend without a loss to hold onto the Kudzu laurels for a second year.  In the B division, the victors were DC’s His & Hers, upset early on Sunday but resolute in taking advantage of another chance to show their mettle in the second ranks.

 

Teams playing the fourth year of this Classic were

 

1.  WOFOIT (2000 champs)

2.  Misfits  (2000 runner up)

3.  Kudzu (2000 semi-finalist)

4.  Bears (a scion of Spear, led by Tim Brooks)

5.  His and Hers (DC’s #1 rep to Kudzu since 98)

6.  Big Winston (new found prestige since the WUFF Coed Championships)

7.  Single and Looking to Score (DC’s #2 rep to Kudzu since 98)

8.  Elvis Needs Boats (Triangle’s longest-running Elvis tribute team)

9.  Grove (that’s with an umlaut to make it sound like groove, from Asheville)

10. Blue Ridge Ultimate (Rich Franck’s team from Charlottesville)

11. Donkey Bomb (second year for this Philly team)

12.  SugarBuzz (the talk of the Triangle, powered by Krispy Kreme)

13.  Mothers  (the longest running ultimate team in the nation?)

14.  Shiva-Kali Consortium (Hindu avatars from DC and environs)

15.  Clouds of Joy (the Triangle’s 4th year rep to Kudzu)

16.  DC Chase (a Charlottesville team led by Geoff Smith)

17.  NEO (Henry Lee’s crew from DC)

18.  CHUF (Chapel Hill HS’s indominatably spirited coed squad)

 

Pools were composed with the following numbering scheme, to try to make the #1 seed face competition equally tough as that faced by other top seeds.

 

Numbering scheme

1                        2                        3                        4

5                        6                        7                        8

12                        11                        10                        9

16                        15                        14                        13

17                        18

 

WOFOIT                        Misfits                        Kudzu                        Bears

His&Hers                        Big Winston                        Single                        ENB

SugarBuzz                        D. Bomb                        BRU                        Grove

DC Chase                        Clouds                        Shiva-Kali                        Mothers

NEO                        CHUF

 

The day’s schedule had the 2 5-team pools play a simple round robin, with a single bye, while the 2 4-team pools played round robin, then had like seeds face off to acquire the next best seed.  For example, Kudzu and Bears finished in their pools undefeated and thus faced off in the last round of play to attain (or retain) the #3 seed, while number two finishers in each of the two pools (Grove and BRU) faced off to attain/retain the #8 seed.

 

The day started with a good deal of intermittent rain, with some stoppages of play due to lightning, but the schedule was maintained and some games were simply truncated.  By 1pm, the standing water had been fully absorbed and the fields were comfortably soft and firm.  Results at the end of the day yielded the following:

 

1.  WOFOIT

2.  Misfits

3.  Bears

4.  Kudzu

5.  His and Hers

6.  Donkey Bomb

7.  Blue Ridge Ultimate

8.  Grove

9.  Shiva-Kali Consortium

10. Elvis Needs Boats

11. Big Winston

12.  NEO

13.  Single and Looking to

14.  Mothers

15.  Clouds of Joy

16.  SugarBuzz

17.  DC Chase

18.  CHUF 

 

Saturday’s play in the A-pool was especially tough, and a 3-way tie for second resulted, each with a 2-2 record.  Point differentials separated out His&Hers, NEO, and SugarBuzz, in that order, but it was especially heart-breaking to the SugarBuzz contingent to find their fine record could only bring them out of their pool as the #4 team, with a #16 seed overall. 

 

In A Div play on Sunday (a perfectly sunny day throughout, with a high of 81 and steady winds from south to north), there was a pre-quarters round, which had the 5-12 finishers face off for the opportunity to meet the still-sleeping 1-4 finishers in the quarters.

Grove over NEO

Shiva over H&H

Donkey over Elvis

BRU over Winston

 

In the B division, the pre-quarters had the following results.

Single over CHUF

Mothers over Chase

SugarBuzz over Clouds

 

B-Div Quarters (which allowed for the losers of the A-Div pre-quarters to participate

His&Hers bye

NEO over Single

Winston over Mothers

Elvis over SugarBuzz

 

C-Div Semis

Chase over CHUF

Clouds bye

 

C-Div Finals

Chase over Clouds (15-6)

 

B-Div Semis

His&Hers over NEO

Elvis over Winston

 

B-Div Finals

His&Hers over Elvis (15-7)

 

A-Div Quarters

WOFOIT over Grove

Kudzu over Shiva

Bears over Donkey

Misfits over BRU

 

A-Div Semis

WOFOIT over Kudzu

Bears over Misfits

 

A-Div Finals

WOFOIT over Bears (15-13)

 

Sunday’s schedule was designed to have all games finished by the time the A-Div finals commenced, and the sidelines for each team were crowded with players from teams who’d not yet left.  Kegs of beer kept the sidelines from becoming either parched or speechless, and the heckling was rampant, especially as home-town teams WOFOIT and Bears were to a person well known by most of the sideline.  The game see-sawed and the much-sought 2-point cross-gender huck was assiduously guarded against, especially by the Bears who had to defend against the big arms of Beth Cates and Amy Seagroves, who were looking for male receivers to make the big cut to the endzone.  The half ended with Bears up, 8-7, but the lead was hard to keep, and the two teams were again rocking back and forth, finally tying at 13s.  The game was to 15 and everyone knew that 2 pointer was the order of the day.  Late in the second half, Tim Brooks had made three spectacular interceptions in a single point, undoubtedly exhausting himself in the process -- it is perhaps this fact that prevented the Bears from being fully ready for the next point...  Bears pulled, and the WOFOIT team set up a near-horizontal stack, made a quick pass to Stick Williams (well short of the mid-field line) who took a quick look downfield, found his target and launched the huck.  Six-foot Amy Seagroves had no trouble reaching high over her much shorter defender to pull down the shot, ending the game conclusively, 15-13.

 

No tournament runs successively without a good deal of help.  My thanks to the captains (and teams) for seeing to it that the schedule was adhered to and that all fields were well-cleaned at the end of each day.  Thanks go to Kudzu party hosts Anthony Burgess and Tim Pflaum for their work with the party and Sunday’s sideline beer, to Rodney Guajardo for the comestibles, and to Craig Murray for the water.  Thanks also to co-TD Garrett Dyer for his work on the website and with the internet announcements for each day’s weather-variable play.  Special commendation to Tom Herndon for enrolling the Chapel Hill High School ultimate team in this year's play.  They were a great addition to the ranks, and they played with great skill and spirit.