Huck Finn

Boomland entered in the state of Missouri and big smiles and big dreams. Upon our arrivial in the state of Pat, Denis, and Joel we opted for the non traditional route of making awkward comments and scenes at the Hooters in the parking lot.

Saturday started with the sounds of Anthony throwing up at 5:30AM. Then after a 45 minutes drive to the fields we were ready to play Wisconsin B. Wheaton described this game as “the battle of the best B-Teams.” We tried not to disappoint and played hard up to the closely scored half. But in the end, their four man cup was too much given the wind and our growing incapability to get our offensive moving and we lost 11-5.

Next we played Judson the six seed in our pool. After losing our first game, I was happy to see Boomland did not come out cold. We struck fist and never let up. Boomland took the game 11-1.

After working the kinks out, Wheaton was up. They were the first seed in the pool so we knew we were going to have to play with more gusto than previously. The first two games were played in an up-wind/down-wind fashion, but this field was turned the other way and allowed for actual Ultimate to be played. We started off slow and it looked like we were going to have a another game like Wisconsin B on our hands. That was, until we decided to take five straight points. They decided that we might be a threat and put in Weasel who Chrysler shut down for the most part. In the end we had dug too much of a deficit and lost 11-7, but we fight really hard for that loss.

We came out strong against Missouri-X, but for some reason lost a lot of steam as the game progressed. Their team was good, but in way should we have lost. We moved back to the up-wind/down-wind fields and hucked too much. I miss we could have seen them in the finals, but we needed to beat at least one team seeded ahead of us to make the Championship Bracket. We lost 11-7.

We lost to Beloit in our last game 11-9 and I would really prefer not talking about it. I can speak for everyone in saying we want to see them again, soon.

Sunday began with a nice “not knowing where we were going” drive through St. Louis. Once we figured out that we were using directions to get to the tourney party and not the fields, we fixed the problem. We played Wash U-B first. The fields were amazingly muddy from flooding and rain the night before. Jon O and at least three others were covered in Missouri mud before warm-ups had ended. From the start of the contest we took control of the flow and speed of the game. We started working on different defenses and J Ko called mixed up lines. After it was all over we won 15-2.

We played Judson again for the next match up. We didn’t take this game as seriously as we should have and the score showed it. We ended up only winning 15-10.

To determine the who got the 17^th place crown we had to play ISU. After two rounds the fields we officially screwed and it was one big mud pit. Sharp cuts were out of the question and I cant even imagine what the handlers were doing to deal with it. We started out sloppy and did not expect the aggressiveness and intensity that ISU came out with. At half we were down at least five. We had a lot of work to do in the second half. Lead by inspiring efforts by Jonny Wego, Cooza, and Chrysler Boomland battled back as best it could. With a little time before soft cap went on ISU was up 12-6. Boomland did not want to die like that and decided to friggin’ fight through everything to get that last point. The point was scattered with turnovers from both teams. Soon hard cap went on and the point had not yet finished. After fifteen more minutes of defense and cutting Cozza found McLain for a little ten footer to end the game. We lost 12-6, but am happy at how hard we fought to get that last point.