Ultimate climbs in rankings

The men ' s ultimate frisbee team is shining this spring, the most important period of its year-long season.

Team President Parag Gajarawala said this may be the best squad he ' s played with in the four years he ' s been with Tribe, the name given to the top men ' s team.

As a result of their exceptional play, Tech has started to garner the national spotlight.

" This is the best it ' s been since I ' ve been down here, " Gajarawala said.

In its last two tournaments over the past month, Tribe has only suffered three losses; two of the three have been against top-10 teams according to the Ultimate Players Association - No. 6 British Columbia and No. 8 Illinois. They registered impressive victories over No. 9 Michigan and No. 18 Oklahoma in the same stretch. Tech was No. 20 at the time of the tournament.

The Tuesday release of the RRI rankings gave Tech a 10-spot boost as Tribe cracked the top 10 in the country as the No. 10 team. The UPA, the " governing organization of ultimate, " according to Gajarawala, has its own Top 25 poll as well, ranking Tech at No. 9 in the country behind N.C. State, the winner of Terminus, the last tournament in which Tech competed.

The nine-man squad placed the highest in tournament competition a men ' s ultimate frisbee team from Georgia Tech has ever placed with a second-place finish nearly a week ago at the event, losing to fellow Atlantic Coast Region member, N.C. State in the championship game.

They had defeated N.C. State 10-6 earlier in the tournament and proceeded to secure victories against Michigan, Boston University, Rutgers, Oklahoma and Michigan State in the competition. Terminus was played near Tech ' s campus in Cumming, Ga.

The season started in the fall, which is widely known in the Ultimate community as the part of the season where colleges mold their teams and prepare for the spring. Teams travel for tournaments weekend after weekend.

" Early in the season we just wanted to get as many people experienced as possible. We went to two big tournaments in the fall season. One was in Greenville, N.C., and we brought a lot of rookies and new players, and after that weekend, we made the distinction between the A-team and B-team. We still did pretty well in that tournament; we made it to the semifinals, " Gajarawala said.

The team then went on to Athens for its second competitive fall tournament, one which Gajarawala says is one of the few very competitive fall tournaments in the country.

Tribe managed a winning record and came away feeling hopeful for the more competitive spring season.

" We ended up with a winning record so we did pretty well. We beat like three or four teams that went to Nationals the previous year. "

By the time February rolled around, Tribe was looking to continue its impressive run in the fall in the Queen City Tune-Up in Charlotte, N.C. where they went 2-2 in the round robin stage and took an early-round exit to Florida, a top-five team in the country, who is also in the same Atlantic Coast Region as Tech.

" The real college season, though, starts in the spring . and we didn ' t do as well as we had hoped [in the Queen City Tune-Up]. We lost some games we were capable of winning and we ended up finishing No. 11, " Gajarawala said.

Over a weekend in late February, the team traveled to San Diego to prove to the West Coast teams there ' s competition east of the Mississippi, but Tribe didn ' t get the chance thanks to a guest appearance by horrid weather conditions.

" We had a tournament in San Diego, which was sort of a disappointment because they ended up getting half of their yearly rainfall that weekend, so the games on Saturday and Monday were cancelled. We only had four games, and we only lost one game. It was disappointing because we wanted to go out to the West Coast and prove ourselves to the West Coast teams and we didn ' t a chance to do that, unfortunately, " Gajarawala said.

" One of our goals was to raise our national profile, which we ' re doing slowly but surely. I think a lot of that helped this past weekend at Terminus where we played really well all weekend and we ended up making it to the finals where we lost to N.C. State but we ended up finishing second overall out of 32 teams, " he said.

The team ' s next tournament, Centex, will be held in Austin, Texas. According to Gajarawala, Centex is the " single strongest men ' s tournament this spring season. "

The tournament features 24 men ' s teams and every one of them finished in the top 36 in the country out of the over 380 college teams that play competitively.

A new age has dawned in women ' s ultimate under the helm of new coach Lori Parham.

" Lori brings to [the team] over 15 years of Ultimate experience, previous coaching experience at Brown University and five National Club Championships Titles won while playing with Lady Godiva in Boston, Mass.

Wreck has already started to see the impact of Lori ' s teachings on the field. Under her guidance, this season looks more promising than ever for Wreck Ultimate, " team member Alexis Hillock said.

Through two tournaments this spring, Mardi Gras in early February and Terminus last week, the women have learned a great deal about where they stand and what needs improving.

" Wreck saw a lot of improvement as a team between Mardi Gras and Terminus, and we expect to do even better in our next tournament, which is College Easterns, on April 2-3 in Wilmington, NC.

After that, it ' s on to the Ultimate Players Association College Championship series! Our sectional championship tournament will be April 16-17 in Athens, GA, " Hillock said.