The N.C. State men’s ultimate Frisbee team took part in the Ultimate Players Association College National Championship from May 22-24 in Columbus, Ohio. The team was seeded 14th and placed 15th out of a wide pool of competitors.

“We expected to do a lot better,” Thomas Ward, a senior in business administration, said. “We thought we could make a run at the championship.”

Ward, a fifth-year senior, said although State’s men’s ultimate team won a national championship in 1999, it has gone through a lengthy drought. The team did not earn a trip to nationals in any of Ward’s previous four years on the team.

“No one on this team had ever been to college nationals, so I think a lot of it comes down to inexperience in this setting,” Ward said. “If we’d seen it before, we wouldn’t have been satisfied just to get there.”

Bryan Conklin, a senior in mechanical engineering, noted this year’s team was slightly less skilled than in years past.

“It was kind of weird, because this my fourth year on the team and it’s probably the least talented team we’ve had overall,” Conklin said.

Conklin theorized that the reason the men’s ultimate came together and earned a trip to nationals for the first time in recent memory was due to young talent and depth.

“We tried a new format where we ran strict offense and defense lines,” Conklin said. “We didn’t have our top seven teams playing every point. We integrated a lot of our rookies into the program. They were playing lots of points at nationals, whereas most of teams don’t do that. Our biggest advantage this year was our overall depth because we’ve got everyone’s playing.”

Ward said a poor start doomed the inexperienced Pack.

“Our first day, we came out pretty flat and didn’t play well,” Ward said. It cost us a chance to advance to the quarterfinals.”

According to Conklin, the team found its legs on the second day, but it had already dug itself into a large hole.

“That second day we came out a little stronger, but it was tough to make up the ground we already lost.”

State was one of 20 teams broken into four pools of five squads each. The first two days were pool play, consisting of two games each on Friday and Saturday. The top three from each pool advanced onto championship bracket.

“Just coming in that first day, we treated it just like any other tournament instead of a nationals tournament,” Conklin said. “We’re used to teams that will lie down after we get up a few points, but this is nationals, and everyone is going for it. We didn’t come out fired up enough.”

The top three teams in the Pack’s bracket tied for first through third, and placement turned to point differential. State missed out on a four-way tie for first by one point.

“That was rough. We realized after the game that if we’d gotten one more point, we would have advanced.,” Ken Porter, a senior in textile and apparel management, said.

Now the Pack will look to the future. The club will likely lose less than five members and the team’s underclassmen now have a wealth of experience.

“I think we did really well considering the talent of the teams we were there,” Porter said. “We learned a lot as a team, and next year when we go we’ll make a lot more noise.”

Ward, for one, is pleased he had the chance to play on the national stage at least once during his college career.

“I was happy to at least make it and experience it, even though we didn’t make it very far,” Ward said.