Northwestern’s B-team, BOLT concluded its 2014-2015 season with style after a huge amount of growth and development. From day 1, BOLT practices and tournaments reflected NUT’s core values of Intensity, Humility, and Discipline. BOLT worked hard on fundamentals and staying in the moment under the experienced guidance of coach and ultimate legend, Kevin Yngve. Captains Alex “Garmin” Lin and Collin “Dirty C” Barnwell led the team and provided additional quality support. Unfortuantely, ever-uncooperative Midwestern weather threw quite a bone in BOLT’s side throughout the regular season and the team was unable to make it to any regular season tournaments except for the infamously rescheduled and relocated Chicago Invite PLAN B. BOLT rolled up to PLAN B with reduced numbers (9) and an intense desire for competition. BOLT came away from a chilly Saturday 1-3, ready for more. After playing through high winds, rain and hail on Sunday, BOLT put up two more wins to finish in 10th at the tournament, amongst numerous A-teams.
BOLT returned to Evanston with a renewed commitment to IHD and the fundamentals of ultimate. After a few more weeks of focused practice, BOLT traveled to Kalamazoo, MI for Sectionals. Bolstered with the arrival of our white jerseys and some great weather, BOLT had a stunning Saturday with wins over Indiana, Illinois and Notre Dame. Each player had a breakout performances and several #SCTop10 worthy plays. Highlights from the Bolt twitter feed include:
- Will Molter skying everyone
- Turkeys for dayz
- Dirty C dunking on some noobz and subsequently spiking it outside of the endzone
- O-line 7 second scores
- Kevin being incredibly athletic, like wow
- Rubin cutting
BOLT entered Sunday eager for more W’s. Good wins against Kalamzoo and Illinois led BOLT to its final game against Michigan Reserve to win it all. Easily the most intense game of the weekend, BOLT fought tooth and nail with Reserve but ultimately came up with a loss, putting up more points on Reserve than their first five opponents combined. Despite the final loss to Michigan, Sectionals was an incredibly successful and fun weekend. BOLT clinched a 2nd place finish and exited the tournament an improved team.
2 weeks following Sectionals, BOLT traveled to Regionals in Rockford, IL for a short tournament against other B-Teams and to support our fellow dudes on NUT. We were pretty fired up for the weekend and were even graced by the presence of the elusive legend Bharat (his first tournament since frosh Glory Dayz lolz, noob). BOLT played well on Saturday with wins over UChicago, Kalamazoo and Illinois, and one loss to Notre Dame. BOLT went out of their final tournament with bang, finishing 1st (we don’t really know how, we were so in the moment). The end of B-Team Regionals marked the end of our season but not our spirit. BOLT members can often be seen back on campus throwing, lifting and gearing up for the 2015-2016 season.