Wednesday, July 21, 2004

Ultimate weathers the storm

Discers play through lightning, jazz

---

Roughly 40 devoted Ultimate players gave up choice seats for the Harry Connick, Jr. concert to play in Week 4 of Ultimate action Thursday—as lightning storms raged just miles away.

As thunderheads rolled to the north and east of the Atkinson Park fields, Wrapcity (2-2) squared off against food-wrap rival KB’s (3-1) on the south field while Grumpy’s (3-1) and Board Bin (0-4) battled to the north.

The final scores: KB’s 15-13 over Wrapcity in overtime, and Grumpy’s 13-10 over Board Bin.

Board Bin and Grumpy’s stayed neck and neck for the opening five points before Grumpy’s pulled ahead. But Board Bin, looking for its first win, nipped relentlessly at the Grumps’ heels.

Speed demon Minnesota Joe Stromsness shook off defensemen with alarming regularity to keep the disc moving up field. Work horses Eric "E" Rogers and Trent "T" Stumph kept the Bin alive with clutch defense and snags.

Ignoring heckles from his teammates for having gone to Grumpy’s before the game, Connor Duncan put height and youth to use while teammate Mike Ausman had countless defensive blocks. After more than an hour of play, Grumps had an 11-9 lead. Despite the Bin’s efforts, Grump’s soon pulled away with the victory thanks to plays from Reid Colter, Colter, and Christl Holzl.

Wrap City and KB’s are forming a fitting rivalry. Both of their encounters have been settled in overtime this year.

Though Paris Nicholson opened the game with a score for Wrapcity, KB’s answered and then surged ahead scoring five unanswered points.

KB’s came out looking sharp, pulling away on the diving acrobatics of John "Shaka" Schenk. With Scott "The Kid" Runkel on holiday, KB’s took advantage of Chase Fetter, an Ultimate Mercenary who, despite playing two weeks with Wrapcity, cooly traded himself to KB’s for this second grudge match.

Capitalizing on Fetter’s addition and The City’s early game jitters, drops and snafu’s, KB’s soon had a 7-2 lead.

But the City was no lying dog; team leaders Bill "Taco" Sherrerd and Kathy Histon inspired the ranks and soon made it a game. With methodical up-field advancement from Histon, captain Dotty Sarchett and Dan Ellefson, end zone tosses found their way to the eager paws of John King, Ryan Baxley, Doug Wilson and Michael Ames.

What followed was a classic battle with KB’s owning the tenuously held lead until the 12-12 tie and overtime. It was also in OT that the skies north of Ketchum filled with not only the swinging riffs of Connick’s jazz piano, but countless lightning bolts as well.

Electrified by the music and, well, the electricity in the air, KB’s pulled away to a 15-13 win thanks, in part, to a spectacular diving block from Diane Pobak and breakaway speed from team youngin’ Clark Saylor.

Ketchum Ultimate has only one week of regular season play left, with games on both Tuesday and Thursday before Saturday’s league tournament and BBQ. Semi-finals begin at 11:30 a.m. Come out and see this year’s championship team emerge from the pack.

The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community. Subscribers to the Idaho Mountain Express will read these stories and others in this week's issue.