2003 Roster/Record
Season Re-cap
by Andrew Edwards
The spring squad of 2003 returned several people from the previous year’s nationals team. The team lost Penk, DeSalvo, Bro, Pirnat, Shroeder, Kron, Turnquist and Freund. The new players were Jason Olmstead, Mike Marcott, Mark Kresowik, Mike Tongvahn, Steve Hanson, Ryan Vandergild, Marty Schiltz, and Jake Fevold.
The fall consisted of 5 tourneys: Cooler Classic, where the team finished 1st in the beer bracket. Tune-up. Fall-Out, where the team got 2nd to Illinois. Club sectionals, where the team finished 4th, once again, being the highest finishing college team. Then the team traveled to Wilmington, NC for Fall Collegiates, where some of the best teams from around the country came. This was one of the best tourneys IHUC had had in a long time and made it to semis, losing to KU. This finish gave a lot of promise to the spring season.
Once again, the team went to Mardis Gras, to battle against 60 teams. The team made it to the top bracket, and ended up 2nd overall to Texas, one of the best tourneys IHUC has ever had. Note: There were actually 2 IHUC teams at this tourney, a rookie squad and a veteran squad that each had about 12 players. The next set of tourneys was the spring break tournament High Tide followed by Easterns, which was the premier tourney of the year. High Tide was a debacle, with the weather and fields. The team lost to Cornell in Semis. Easterns had all the best teams from across the country. We battled with Oregon first, and lost 15-11 – this team would eventually finish 2nd at nationals. We then lost to Madison big – they would go on to win nationals that year. We beat UMASS and Chapel Hill handily. The next day, we suffered a tough 17-16 loss to Humboldt State, and played Texas for 9th. We got our revenge and won on double game point, to claim 9th. Big 10s was our final regular season tourney, and we performed better than the previous year, making it to semis, before losing to Madison.
Sectionals were once again in Iowa City and the team cruised to another undefeated sectional title. Regionals were also held in Iowa City. Once again they came in as the 3 seed. The team had a tough time against St. Olaf in the quarters game, and the team struggled the next day in semis against CUT, losing 15-10. Working their way back up, beating Iowa State and St. Olaf again, they had to play Madison in the game to go. Madison had been beat in the finals by CUT, and went on to crush us 15-5, en route to winning a national title. Despite not making nationals, it was clear that this team was just as good as the previous year, but unfortunately, the region had two very tough teams.
Mark Kresowik won freshman of the year this year.
Final Rank: 17 out of 272
Final Record: 29-12
Sectionals: 1st
Regionals: 3rd