Great Lakes Open Reganionals Recap 2010

Weather reports looked grim for Regionals, two rounds were played before the tournament was canceled due to extreme weather conditions. Dayton played well in its first game of the day against Illinois. Butters scored all 6 points ripping discs out of the sky... the extreme weather was likely nature's jealous response to butter's high flying abilities. After dropping its first game against 3rd ranked Illinois Dayton moved into the 2nd place bracket. In the second place bracket Dayton lost to Wheaton-ILL in a close and hard fought game, 15-10. T Knight had his first experience in a game as a position handler, working the disc up the field for a score... the crowd went wild!!

As expected Michigan State rolled through its games against Michigan-B (15-2), Ball State (15-9), and Indiana (13-7). Illinois faced slightly more resistance beating Dayton (15-6), Purdue (15-8), and Michigan(9-8). The two teams would face each other in the final game. Illinois took first place, and the looser, Michigan State, then was forced to play the winner of Indiana vs. Michigan (13-14) for second place. In the second place game Michigan beat Michigan State 11-8 earning itself another trip to nationals.

Some of the big news of the region was Ohio University's stellar performance. OU, much like Dayton last year, took second in the East Plains Section and received the 8th seed at Regionals. The 8/9 game is always difficult as the teams are typically fairly matched with similar playing styles. OU dropped its first game against Ball State 13-15. After its first round loss OU recovered beating Michigan B 15-5, Northwestern 13-7, Kenyon 15-6, and finally losing to Indiana 12-14 in the semi-finals of the 2nd place bracket. OU finished Regionals in 5th place, ahead of many including OSU. Kenyon put forth a solid performance finishing 2-2 on the weekend, about as expected.

I would say that my RSD quotes are about accurate "Central and Michigan are real strong this year. OSU in my opinion is the worst its been in several years (still good enough to take the East Plains with only one close game), Regionals will tell a lot. Ohio is a surprisingly strong team... a good handler set and a fairly deep bench. Kenyon has one stud and several role players... hes very difficult to cover and sends up a lot of hucks. The team is not very deep, but makes up for it with athleticism. Kenyon will likely have trouble against deeper benches and in heavy winds where a greater number of more skilled handlers are necessary" -April 24th 2010