On June 7th and 8th, both the girls and boys ultimate frisbee teams traveled to Rockford, Illinois to compete at the High School National Invite Tournament (HSNI). Last year, the JR boys team placed seventh overall at this tournament. As of May 21, the girls team is ranked ninth in the country and the boys team is ranked fourth.
HSNI is an annual ultimate frisbee tournament featuring the top 16 teams in the nation. Teams are given bids to play in the tournament either based on their ranking and performance during the season or by winning one of the “auto-bid” tournaments. Winning an “auto-bid” tournament guarantees that team a spot regardless of how they perform in the rest of their season.
“The season so far has been incredible,” said junior boys team captain Niko Epstein. “We’re winning games and having fun doing it, which is about all you could ask for.” Overall, the girls team’s record is 20-3 and the boys team’s record is 28-1. The boys came in second at one of the biggest tournaments on the East coast; YULA in Virginia; won the Virginia State Championships; and won Coconut Classic, a big tournament in NJ, over spring break. The girls team came in fourth at YULA and third at Virginia States. Together, the teams won the coed DCSAA tournament over School Without Walls on April 27, with a final score of 13-8. Most impressively, both teams won the April River Campus Classic tournament, an “auto-bid” tournament in Nashville, Tennessee that guaranteed spots at HSNI for both teams, although the boys had already qualified at YULA.
Looking forward to HSNI, the teams “[had] to challenge [themselves] to get to the next level,” said junior girls team captain Safya Biswal. Players put in work “both in and out of practice” to be able to “compete at the highest level and finish the season on a high note,” added senior girls captain Wengyin Ho. Another big goal for the girls team at Nationals was to use it to build the foundation of their program. We have lots of amazing players but we’re always looking for new players and to help build the sport,” senior captain Lizzie Himmelfarb said. The hope was that this experience would demonstrate the team’s drive, competitiveness, and intensity, but also how much fun frisbee can be.
Similar to the girls team, the boys started to “ramp up [their] practices in both quantity and quality,” Epstein said. They know that “if [they] play [their] game, [they] could see a lot of success at the tournament,” so practices were crucial to be able to “go there and play to their potential.
