WAC and Detox, Occidental’s closely united ultimate frisbee teams, have matchups on the horizon. On April 13, WAC will be hosting the Claremont Ultimate Frisbee team for a best-of-three series, and on April 21, Detox will host University of San Diego, Caltech and Claremont.
Detox captain Theodore McGowan (junior) said this event will determine who gets to represent Southern California at the 2024 Ultimate Frisbee DIII College Championships.
“We’re going to play everybody and whoever comes out with the best record goes to nationals.” McGowan said. “Basically, Oxy and Claremont are the two best teams, so what really determines who goes is who wins that game. It is going to be hosted at Occidental so come support and if nothing else, it’ll be a great vibe and hopefully we get some dubs.”
According to Lily Pesikoff (sophomore), one of WAC’s social chairs, the Claremont game is the pinnacle of their season.
“The Claremont games are definitely what we’ve been working for this whole season,” Pesikoff said, “We’re a club sport so we don’t have games leading up to a final tournament, and nothing we’ve done so far matters as much as this game.”
Pesikoff said the supportive WAC community motivates her to go to practice.
“If I’m tired one day, I may not want to go to practice, but I want to be there for my friends,” Pesikoff said. “It’s so great because even if you are sitting in your room and don’t want to go to practice, a part of you knows that you’ll be happy to see your friends once you’re there. Every time we show up to practice, you’d think we hadn’t seen each other in a year because everyone’s so excited to see each other.”
Lily Van Linder (sophomore) is one of the captains for the WAC Ultimate Frisbee team and has noticed the positivity of the Ultimate Frisbee community.
“One of the main ideas in ultimate frisbee is the spirit of the game, which is that even if you’re not on their team, you’re still nice, friendly, caring and welcoming,” Van Linder said. “So that being the baseline of the sport really influences the environment of the team, which is really great. It’s really nice to have people you can rely on, both on and off the field that deeply care about you, which is really amazing.”
As an ultimate frisbee community, Detox’s social and fundraising chair Ian Terell (sophomore) said he cherishes the team’s activities with WAC.
“We did a hike with WAC and Detox in the Hollywood Hills that was really fun,” Terell said. “It was stunning, and then just being able to go with both teams and mix up the cars, I had a blast and I know other people had a blast.”
Contact Theo Wilton at Twilton@oxy.edu
