This article and the 2012 Skyd College Tour are brought to you by Spin Ultimate.
Austin, Texas. March 24-25. Divisions I, II, III. 42 teams. A dance-off. A throwing mixer to precede play. Women’s Centex 2012 is going to be a weekend of epic ultimate and southern fun, as teams from across the country (and Canada!) travel to Texas to participate in what some consider the most elite women’s tournament of the season. Add the fantastic tournament coordination skills of Michelle Ng and Without Limits, and you’re guaranteed an amazing weekend. This will be my first time traveling to Centex, and I am looking forward to bringing you coverage direct from the fields. Here’s what we’ve got to look forward to this weekend.
So many pools! With four pools in Division one, it’s too hard to go pool by pool, so here are the highlights. I’m going to go out on a limb here and assume that some regional information was taken in to consideration when constructing this schedule.
- Earliest games start at 8:45, most at 11. Hooray for great planning!
- North Carolina will match up against UCLA in Pool A, a game that didn’t happen at Stanford Invite.
- Texas is ranked above UCLA likely due to their win over BLU at Pres Day. Yes, this puts UCLA third in their pool.
- Cal takes the first seed in Pool B over Michigan. That game will be interesting, though I’m probably going to be watching something other than a PresDay rematch. I am curious to see what girls have returned from injuries: I believe that the two girls who received concussions at Pres Day will be back in action, Claire Desmond should be on her feet, but we’ll have to see how much play time Lily Lin gets. Though her knees are seeming as strong as ever, she was still feeling a bit worn down through Stanford Invite.
- I’m finally going to get to see Iowa and Iowa State in action – the top dogs at Midwest Throwdown will face some excellent out of region competition. Will the North Central prove they deserve four bids?
- Santa Barbara will be traveling to Texas – are the Burning Skirts ready to prove they deserve to be at Nationals this year? I’m betting we’ll see a lot of intensity from these girls.
- Can Brit Gartner and Jess Haller lead SOL to break seed? We’ll see if Eau Claire can take down UCSD and Rice.
- I’ve never seen Texas A&M and James Madison play; and can Kali hold their own in Pool F? The Colorado – Dartmouth game is going to be great.
- Can Colorado College make a name for themselves this year, as they did with last year’s historic trip to Nationals? Could they then take down Michigan or Cal (yes, lots of assumptions in this sentence)?
- I’m looking forward to seeing more from Georgia. They didn’t impress me too much at Queen City Tune Up, but hopefully the weather will be nicer and Dawgma can show off their stuff.
- Look for me judging the dance-off! With 13 fantastic teams to choose from (yes, I’ve seen the videos, and I’m impressed by every single team), I’ll have my work cut out for me. If you can find a special way to bribe me, I might be swayed, but I don’t take money, baked goods, or compliments very well.
You can find me at the Black Sheep Lodge Saturday night, hopefully sippin’ a pint with Michelle Ng and some Psychos. As always, I’ll be tweeting up a storm (@EhmZiv) and providing live audio commentary of some games with Skyd’s Adam Lerman who will also be tweeting (@AisSKYD). Stay tuned for a coverage schedule! Meanwhile, let’s get talking in the comments below – who’s YOUR pick to come out on top this weekend?
Let Centex Week 2012 officially commence!
Comments Policy: At Skyd, we value all legitimate contributions to the discussion of ultimate. However, please ensure your input is respectful. Hateful, slanderous, or disrespectful comments will be deleted. For grammatical, factual, and typographic errors, instead of leaving a comment, please e-mail our editors directly at editors [at] skydmagazine.com.