What better way to spend a beautiful spring day than by tossing a Frisbee around the Yard? For the Harvard men’s ultimate team, it’s more than just a way to spend the afternoon; it’s a pastime involving fierce competition.
The Crimson recently competed in the first of two qualification tournaments for the National club competition in the sport. Two weeks ago, the Metro-Boston Area Sectional welcomed teams such as Bentley, MIT, Northeastern, Harvard, and Tufts to Rhode Island for a weekend of tough rivalry.
“We made it to the finals [of Sectionals] to play against Tufts, who is our biggest rival and who I think will be one of our biggest rivals in Regionals as well,” co-captain Alex Yang said. “Unfortunately we had a lot of injuries and we had a very short roster that day. We did our best but we weren’t able to beat them.”
The Crimson lost to the Jumbos by a score of 12-9, but was able to come home with a second place finish, dominating Bentley in the consolation match. With the strong weekend of disk throwing, Harvard secured a place for itself in the regional tournament on May 8-9, putting the Crimson one top-two finish away from Nationals.
Despite training three times a week in preparation for the upcoming games, uncontrollable factors such as numbers and injury plague the Crimson on its quest for retribution against Tufts.
“With a really short roster, it’s tough to do well [in tournaments], just because by the end of the second day, we’re just all so tired when so few people are playing,” Yang said. “So right now, the first goal of our team is just to get everyone healthy. We’re also just trying to make sure that all of our healthy guys keep getting better.”
The team will be participating in a round-robin tournament hosted by the Jumbos this weekend, where it will get one last chance to see the some of the competition it will face in May. For the seniors, there’s even more riding on this last chance at a title.
“It’s my last year on the team, and as a captain I’m really hoping that we’ll be able to make to Nationals,” Yang said. “[The tournament] takes place the day after Commencement, so if we were to make it I would actually be flying out just a couple hours after Commencement ends. I think it would be great.”
“In the past few years, we’ve only made it to nationals once, which was my sophomore year,” he continued. “That year, we tied for fifth place in the nation which was our best finish ever, so this year I’m really hoping we can do as well or even better.”
