One of the fastest growing sports in the world, Ultimate (commonly referred to as Ultimate Frisbee) has exploded in popularity on college campuses over the past two decades. The demand for Ultimate at Kenyon has grown to support two club teams -- SERF and Blu-Ray.
Kenyon has a longer history with disc sports than most are probably aware. While the modern construction of Ultimate traces back to a New Jersey high school in 1968, students in Gambier were playing a unique flying disc game that integrated rules from touch football in the 1940s. In fact, Ultimate's Wikipedia page cites Kenyon alongside Amherst College as locations of two of the earliest known disc-sport competitions.
Continuing that legacy, Ultimate has never been more popular on Kenyon's campus. During the school year, whenever the weather allows, you will find a number of students spaced out on Peirce Lawn taking some time to throw a disc around. Of course, while playing catch can be a nice way to relax, Ransom athletes maintain a steadfast commitment to improving their craft.
This year, both Kenyon College club Ultimate teams qualified for the Division III College Championships, which began Friday in Norco, Calif. SERF, the men’s team, played against TRON from Brandeis University, while Blu-Ray, the women’s team, took on Union, from Tennessee. The Kenyon student-athletes get to repreesent their school, play competition frisbee and travel to the West Coast in December.
SERF, a team of 19, is making the trip for the first time since 2014. Blu-Ray qualified after winning its conference and then placing second in the Ohio Valley Regional Tournament. SERF posted a 5-1 record in conference play, went 2-1 in the regional tournament and earned the national bid on a tie-breaker based on point differential.
SERF entered the national bracket as the No. 8 seed out of 16 teams. The squad also owns a No. 8 national ranking from Ultiworld’s DIII power rankings. In the women’s field, Blu-Ray checked in as the No. 15 seed out of 16 and carries with it a national rank of No. 20 from Ultiworld.
The national tournaments are divided into four, four-team pools. Each team ws scheduled to play the other three teams in its pool throughout the course of the first day. The top three teams in each bracket advance to the championship bracket with the winner of each pool getting a first-round bye. First-round and quarterfinal rounds of the championship bracket were played on Saturday. The semifinal rounds and the final took place on Sunday. Results were not available at press time.
