Similar to Pres Day, we will be updating scores round-by-round, so
bookmark the page and refresh it to see what's going down in St.
Louis!

We have been working hard with the St. Louis business community and
our sponsors Five Ultimate and Ultivillage to bring teams a number of
awesome amenities for the weekend.  We will be selling Midwest
Throwdown Five Ultimate gear designed by Kristen Lamm (Florida FUEL /
Florida Layuma) and the Five crew, as well as giving out the following
freebies:
- Free Five Ultimate Midwest Throwdown trucker hats for the winning
team
- Free Chipotle burritos for both teams playing in the finals
immediately following the finals game
- Free Papa John's pizza for all teams immediately following Saturday
pool play games
- Buy one get one free coupons to Qdoba for all teams
- Free mini rulebook for every team
- Midwest Throwdown program (with team bios) for all players
- Division I teams: Free Smoothie King coupon and Ultivillage DVD to
award to each team's Most Spirited Player / Most Valuable Player
- Division II teams: Free Smoothie King coupon and assorted Five
Ultimate freebies to award to each team's Most Spirited Player / Most
Valuable Player

We are very excited for a great weekend of ultimate.  If you are in
the area, stop by the Blue Heron Polo Fields either day for some great
women's ultimate.

For more information, check out our tournament website at:
http://throwdown09.texasultimate.org
As always, feel free to email us with questions and/or comments at:
throwdown.td (at) gmail dot com

Looking forward to a great weekend of ultimate.  :)

On Mar 5, 8:37 am, throwdown...@gmail.com wrote:

A more comprehensive review to come after the weekend, but here are a
few thoughts about today.  Wisconsin was simply playing at another
level than all of their opponents- they were unchallenged today and it
will be interesting to see who, if anyone, gives them a run for their
money tomorrow.  Carleton, the other perennial Nationals Qualifier,
brought a small squad of 13 this weekend.  They have incredible
fundamentals and utilized the dump-swing better than any other team
out there.  Truman State looked much stronger than they did just two
weeks ago at Mardi Gras.  Strong leadership and a solid core in Emily
Tobias, Mona Baucom, and Morgan Shahan have TSUnami headed in the
right direction.  Tsunami, Wash U, St. Louis, and Kansas make the
Ozarks the most interesting Section in the South Region.  I expect
those four teams, plus Vanderbilt and Texas to make the two-bid South
Region very interesting.

Players that pop:
Georgia Bosscher (Wisconsin)*
Amber Sinicrope (Wisconsin)*
Emelie McKain (Wisconsin)*
Anna Snyder (Carleton)*
Tasha Parman (Kansas)*
Kate Stambaugh (Wash U)*
Meg Hofner (Midwest Conglomeration)
Melissa Gibbs (Iowa State)*
Lucille Strawn (Wisconsin-B)

* indicates college eligible

More scores updates to come from the fields tomorrow and a more
comprehensive write-up will follow next week.  Thanks to all of the
families and friends who were out there supporting the players and the
tournament today!

Michelle, on behalf of Wash U Women's Ultimate

On Mar 7, 4:31 pm, throwdown...@gmail.com wrote:

A more complete writeup to come tonight / tomorrow.

Michelle, on behalf of Wash U Women's Ultimate

On Mar 8, 1:07 pm, throwdown...@gmail.com wrote:

The fields are clean and everyone is on their way home (or home!)
Throwdown is over, and I just want to say on behalf of the Bettys of
Kansas that the tournament was excellent.

From the beginning, the tournament organization and communication was
great.  Team contacts would get updates with any tourney changes in a
very timely matter and that allowed everyone to be on the same page.
Great fields, well-thought out pools, constant communication, an
athletic trainer, multiple portable restrooms, UPA verification,
housing where it could be provided, bagels, fruit, water, provided
trashbags, marked fields with big sidelines, team bios provided in the
captain's packet, the coupons for freebies, sweet Five gear, great
competition, the Ultivillage DVD, etc etc etc--THIS is how a
competitive tournament should be run.

Congrats to SLU for their win, and a huge thanks for all those
involved in the organizing/planning/running of Midwest Throwdown.
Thanks to those who sponsored the tournament!

My favorite weather-related moments:  watching every team run to their
cars when the downpour started after the first round on Sunday, and
hearing the story of the portable restroom almost tip over with a WUWU
player inside.  You can't control the weather (at least it didn't snow
this year), but you guys owned everything else.

Keep up the good work, and I know women's ultimate will continue to
grow and grow.  That's what it's all about!  Thanks again for an
awesome weekend in STL.  We really appreciate the opportunity to play
in a such a great tournament, and I hope to see it on the schedule
next year too.

Last year, the University of Texas Women’s Ultimate program founded
Midwest Throwdown as a way to develop competitive ultimate in the
South and Midwest.  13 teams attended the tournament with Wisconsin
beating Michigan in the finals. This year, the Wash U team took the
tournament over as their primary program fundraiser with the same goal
in mind.  Throwdown grew to 19 teams and moved to the Blue Heron Polo
Fields about 30 minutes outside of St. Louis, MO.

Some notes about specific teams:
Saturday Round 1, #1 seed Wisconsin opened up against Iowa State, in a
matchup featuring two of the best teams in the Central Region.  Iowa
State drew first blood and seemed pumped, but speedy cutter Frances
Tsukano skied two girls to tie the game at 1s, then laid out for the
next score to put Bella Donna up 2-1.  Aimee Speaker got a D almost
immediately, Bella Donna scored on the quick transition, and Wisconsin
never looked back, cruising to a 13-4 win.  Wisconsin is deep this
year despite the loss of handlers Megan Vingers and Lucille Strawn.
They picked up transfers Amber Sinicrope (Brute Squad) and Laura
Schott (yes, former Wisconsin standout Anna Schott’s little sister),
as well as freshman Sandy Jorgenson, who is simply a beast in the
air.  Most college teams would be thankful to have one handler as
dominant as Sinicrope- the fact that Wisconsin has Sinicrope, Emelie
McKain, Georgia Bosscher, and (injured) Shira Klane is almost unfair.
This core of throwers is probably the strongest in the nation and when
complemented by cutters like Tsukano, Jorgenson, Courtney Kiesow (’08
Callahan winner), and Laura Bitterman, they make offense look way too
easy.  They don’t move the disc particularly fast but their handlers
get the up-the-line cut quite frequently and their cutters are
consistently wide open on in-cuts for huge yardage gains.  While
Wisconsin had a fair number of turnovers in their first two games,
they won the 1/2 game in the pool against Hayride 13-5 with only 8
turnovers all game.  Their game was over by the time most of the other
games were at half.  Tsukano and McKain were also kind enough to hand
me the head of a dead bird this weekend (wrapped in a napkin) and
deserve to be shouted out for their thoughtful gift.

Iowa State looked strong under the continued leadership of Melissa
Gibbs.  They ran a very effective zone with Gibbs eating up everything
as deep-deep and on O, Gibbs’ throws carried her team to semis to
weekend.  Her team relies on her to be a big playmaker and she makes
those plays look very easy.  Jasmine Draper is also a very talented
player on both sides of the disc.  While Iowa State’s offense is not
quite as polished as Wisconsin’s or Carleton’s, they are very
aggressive and they utilize their strengths well.  They are certainly
going to be a strong contender in the Central Region that features
perennial contenders Wisconsin and Carleton, as well as the up-and-
coming Wisconsin Eau-Claire.

Carleton also looked good this weekend despite only bringing 13
players to the tournament.  Captains Julia Busiek and Becca Sheridan
are very talented players and strong leaders- they seem to have a very
specific game plan and get their players to work within a system to
execute it.  Busiek in particular is a very vocal leader from the
sideline- she gave her teammates a steady stream of encouragement,
following the disc tirelessly up and down the field all weekend.  That
seemed to make a huge difference in the games that I saw.  I was also
very impressed by Anna Snyder.  She had strong throws and played great
defense, but the way she attacked the disc on her in cuts stood out to
me.  She caught everything at full speed, making her very difficult to
cover.  Carleton had a number of athletic players (unfortunately, many
of them did not have jerseys which made them difficult to identify),
but their strong fundamentals were also very impressive.  They
utilized the dump-swing quite effectively and were very patient with
the disc.  They will be a very good team when they have their full
roster.

Midwest Conglomeration was a pickup team comprised of former Midwest
standouts Meg Hofner (Illinois), Christina Wirkus (Truman State), and
Kate Sanders (Truman State), as well as some other players including
some women from St. Louis-based mixed team One Trick Pony.  Hofner got
a number of layout Ds and kept the offense moving with her throws,
allowing Midwest to challenge some good teams.  They were down to 5
players by the end of the weekend but seemed to have a lot of fun.

I was extremely impressed with Truman State this weekend.  I watched
them play two weeks ago at Mardi Gras and the difference between their
play then and now was astounding.  Apparently the weather has been
pretty miserable in Kirksville, so their time playing outdoors has
been very limited which may have impacted their performance at Mardi
Gras negatively.  Emily Tobias, Mona Baucom, and Morgan Shahan, three
of their best players from last year, anchor the team but other
players such as Marianne Richter, Alexandra Lundy (creator of the
famed dance move “the Lundy”), and Julie Sztukowski have stepped up
tremendously and are getting a lot more touches.  If Truman State can
continue to develop Players 4-10 on their roster, they are going to be
a very good team- their win over Carleton shows what they are capable
of.  Tobias, Baucom, and Shahan were especially impressive in that
game and despite playing a very high percentage of TSUnami’s points,
they are still challenging to contain at the end of a long day or long
weekend.  Truman State will be right in the mix at the top of the
South Region and it will be interesting to see how they do at Terminus
and Women’s College Centex later this month.

Kansas’ offense was led by captain Tasha Parman.  She was an All-
Region selection last year and it was easy to see why when watching
Betty this weekend.  Her throws look effortless and her forehand hucks
hit receivers in stride time and time again.  Kansas is certainly good
enough to beat any of the top teams in the Region and given the right
circumstances, they could definitely find themselves playing in a game-
to-go in Little Rock next month.

Wash U has a new name (Tilt), a new coach (Chung Lee), and some new
grad students who are making a big difference.  Grad students Jenny
McKenzie and Lauren Gramlich, who both play on One Trick Pony, as well
as Laura Halfmann (formerly of TSUnami) have added some depth to the
Wash U offense, while captains Abby Stephens and Kate Stambaugh
continue to bring the firepower on both sides of the disc.
Stambaugh’s breaks and hucks are vital to the Tilt offense.  She uses
her height to her advantage and it is nearly impossible to stop both
her around and inside throws at the same time.  Stephens will snag any
50/50 disc 90% of the time and seems to want it more for her team than
many other captains out there.  Tilt’s offense looked much more
developed than it did last season.  They utilize the dish pass very
effectively and seem to be developing a more coherent offensive set.
They are on a very positive path for development and will be testing
their mettle against the best teams in the nation at Women’s College
Centex in three weeks.

St. Louis returns all of their major players from last year- Kara
O’Malley, Teresa “TO” Ogrinc, Tricia Wong, Carolyn Batzel, and
Michelle Place.  They were slated to bring an abbreviated roster (and
thus were seeded much lower than I would have seeded their full team),
but most of their big guns seemed to be in attendance (and playing
well).  It’s hard to describe St. Louis’ offensive philosophy, but
it’s safe to say that they are good at what they do.  There were many
many times this weekend where I heard opponents express surprise at
some of the St. Louis handlers’ decisions, yet nearly every time those
throws were completed and St. Louis walked off the field like they
expected that exact outcome.  They utilize huge blading forehands and
lots of inside-out throws to very skinny spaces.  They also never stop
cutting and pretty much anywhere on the field is a viable place for
them to throw, so the defense has to constantly be on its toes.  Last
year, my team (Texas) game planned almost exclusively for O’Malley and
while she certainly remains one of their best players and is their
clear leader, I was also very impressed with Ogrinc this weekend.  She
made some extremely difficult catches and scored a ridiculous number
of goals.  She is also a very good defender as she is significantly
taller than most of her teammates.  St. Louis played very aggressive
defense, specifically with the physicality of their marks and with the
way they dictated the movements of the opposition’s cutters.  Their
defenders initiate much more body contact than any other college team
I have seen this season and it seemed like most teams this weekend
were not used to that type of play.

I didn’t get to watch as many of the Division II games as I would have
liked, but the level of play was quite high.  Here are a few thoughts:

Wisconsin-B looked quite strong, though as mentioned in an earlier
post, having Lucille Strawn (formerly of Bella Donna) helped
tremendously.  Wisconsin-B also featured several college eligible
players who played on Bella Donna in past seasons and who bring some
welcome experience to this brand-new B team.  Eyleen Chou is a very
positive leader and will be a big help to this young team in terms of
continuing to develop solid players for the Wisconsin Ultimate
program.

On Mar 9, 1:32 am, throwdown...@gmail.com wrote: