2004 Roster/Record
Season Re-cap
by Andrew Edwards
The team lost Elijah, Robinson, Marcott, Tongvahn, Vandergild, Schiltz, and Fevold, with only Elijah and Robinson not being rookies the previous years. So with the core of the team back and adding All-Region star Ross Cram and Carleton receiver Jon Lindeen, IHUC knew that this was a year to do something. The team had six 5th year players. The team added in addition to the aforementioned transfers, Jake Beltz, John Crotty, Dave Edwards, Peter Lyons, and Matt Mobily. Matt Klemm organized a competitive open Club team in the fall called Ethanol, which consisted of most of the veterans of IHUC, so the actual college team in the fall was pretty small. The team made semis in the beer bracket of Cooler. The team actually made Regionals in the Club division. The team then traveled to Georgia for CCC, a new competitive tourney in the fall. The team fared well, losing a tight match to eventual college champion Colorado. The team ended up 9th place.
In the spring, Mardis Gras was once again the season starter. IHUC brought one squad and rotated playing time, and ended up 1-3 on the first day. But still in quarters, managed to knock off top-seed KU, and in semis beat a depleted Illinois team, before falling to Madison in the finals. This was IHUC’s second straight 2nd place finish at Mardis Gras. The most competitive tourney of this spring season was Centex, held in Austin. The team had close games against everyone, and made it to the middle 8 team bracket. The team crushed Humboldt State, and then came back to beat Texas A&M, before losing to British Columbia to claim 10th place out of 24 teams. The team then went to Fools Fest, where they were in a power pool and eventually lost to Colorado again, in semis.
Sectionals were held up in Luther. Even with a small squad, the team managed to take their 3rd sectionals title in a row, which led to another 3 seed at regionals, which was in Whitewater, WI. The team made semis again, and had their best game ever against CUT, losing 15-12, with many spectacular plays on both sides. Battling through the backdoor, the team beat St. Olaf to make it to nationals for the 2nd time in 3 years.
At nationals, in Seattle, the team was the 13 seed. The first game was against Colorado, and IHUC could never get over the hump and lost 15-12. Their next game was against NC State, and once again could not finish a game and lost 15-12. The 3rd game was do or die, to get into prequarters. IHUC destroyed Delaware 15-5 to get a prequarters game against CUT. The team got pumped for this game, and tried to ignore the 100 or more CUT fans that lined both sides of the field. The game went back and forth, with huge catches and d’s on both sides. IHUC broke a couple more times and was silencing the crowd. Up 14-11, game to 15, IHUC had 2 chances to put it away, but gave up breaks, to only be up 14-13. IHUC received again, and turned it again, the nightmare happening once more, but Ross Cram got a ‘d’ and Francis picked up to throw to a wide open Timmy , and the game was over, 15-13. This was the first time in team history to beat Carleton. The team then had to face a rested Brown team in quarters. IHUC was actually ahead the entire game, and was up 12-9, before fatigue and other factors led to a 15-13 loss, to an extremely unspirited Brown team. Brown would go on to lose to Berkeley in semis. This was one of the best finishes ever for an IHUC team, and a great season all around.
Final rank: 12 out of 370
Sectionals: 1st
Regionals: 3rd
Nationals: Quarters