CSU Ultimate Frisbee Team Off to a Flying Start

While most students were preparing their upcoming Valentine’s Day plans, our very own Native Ultimate squad traveled to Georgia College in Milledgeville to the “Flick n’ Nuts” tournament to test their mettle against some of the best Division Three teams in the southeast. CSU’s Ultimate program was started by Columbus native and senior at CSU, Logan Ogletree. Logan transferred back home after playing Frisbee at Kennesaw State University. The here program is truly in its infancy. It began in the fall of 2016, when the team decided to call themselves “Native Ultimate.” When asked why they choose this name Team Captain Logan Ogletree said, “CSU’s mascot is the cougar, and in research I did the cougar was almost sacred to the native peoples around this area.” CSU was seeded to place 6th in the tournament. At 9 a.m. Disco Ultimate Belmont University of Nashville, Tennessee threw the disc off to Native’s offensive line. At half time the score was 7-4 Belmont. After a half time pep talk, Native scored two consecutive points, but Belmont regained the momentum and finished out the game with a final score of thirteen to CSU’s seven. Next, the Natives took on what was easily the most experienced squad, Georgia College Alumni. The Alumni have been to more tournaments than our infant Native team has had practices. GCA quickly took a lead and won the game with a final score of thirteen to CSU’s three. The Native’s next opponent was Georgia College’s actual team, who are defending Division Three national champions. Every single player on Native turned it up a notch and held a lead of seven to six over the national champs at half time. CSU was able to pull out an amazing upset victory against Georgia College. The final score was CSU twelve to GC ten. In the final game of the day, The Native’s played Georgia Gwinnett College. Exhausted from their match with the national champs CSU lost 13-6. On Sunday, CSU had a rematch with the national champs of Georgia College, and lost the match 13-7. This moved the Natives to another rematch with Belmont University. In a nail biting first half, Belmont led the Natives seven to six. When soft cap sounded, the game was tied at eight all. Belmont scored first after soft cap leading 9-8, but Native answered with three consecutive and unanswered points to win the game. For a rookie team to break seed is a small miracle itself and to beat the national champs once is a much larger one. Logan Ogletree gave some remarks about the weekend. “I am incredibly proud with our performance, us beating the national Champions is certainly a testament to how far we have come since last semester and how much progress can still be made.” He continued to say, “I would like to invite anyone interested in playing to come practice with us to come out to the intermural fields on Thursday, February 16th.” The Natives still have two more tournaments before regionals in April and are always looking to teach new players and hone experienced players skills.