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By Kaitlyn LeBoutillier
Ottawa Ultimate players helped Canada capture silver and bronze at the World Junior Championships, and then completed the full colour set of medals with a golden sweep of both the open and women’s nationals on their home field at Ultimate Parks Inc. in Manotick.
Nearly 20 local players wore the maple leaf at world championships in either junior or senior open, women’s or mixed competition this summer.
First up were July’s junior worlds in Birmingham, UK, where Canada earned mixed silver, open bronze and a women’s fourth-place finish.
Kai Hyndman was part of the open team alongside fellow Ottawa players Carter Walker, Noah Bérubé, Théo Gobeil and Owen Daigeler, who caught what proved to be the game-winning goal in Canada’s 14-11 bronze medal match victory over Italy.
“It was a really stressful game. When we played Italy earlier in pool play, it was a pretty tight game, so we weren’t really sure what to expect in the bronze medal game,” recounts Hyndman, whose team won nine out of 10 games over the course of the seven-day tournament.
“Having the opportunity to get that medal was the best thing that could happen,” he adds. “I think it leaves you off on a happy note, because sometimes getting silver, there’s that thought that you might have been able to do better.”
That was the fate experience by the Canadian mixed team, which included Ottawa’s Roth Mohring, Kate Clement and Mateo Marshall, as they took silver behind USA, while the Canadian women’s team featuring Ottawa’s Brooklyn Cheer, Khoi Brooks, Lilianne Shannon and Sophie Belanger experienced double heartbreak in placing fourth.
It was a strong showing across the board for the Canadian sides, but Hyndman says an even bigger highlight was the camaraderie felt among the three Canadian contingents.
“The teams would come and watch each other’s games if there was an opportunity,” he notes. “We’d always try and cheer each other on. Because we were out in the UK, there were not really that many fans other than parents.”
That aspect was completely different for the Ottawa players when they returned to compete in front of their hometown fans for the Aug. 11-18 Canadian Championships, hosted by the Ottawa-Carleton Ultimate Association.
“It was really amazing because you had all the people that you actually know and they could come and support you. That’s not something you really get, especially with Ultimate,” which doesn’t have as large a following as some other sports, Hyndman signals. “Being in Ottawa, all your friends and family are able to watch you, so that was a really big thing, and it kind of helped the team bond a little bit more.”
Hyndman says it was “a pretty big adjustment” to switch gears from playing internationally to then rejoining his club team, but that it was “nice to be back with people that you know pretty well,” and it was fairly easy to reestablish on-field connections with his local Ignite teammates that he’d practiced with all season long.
Ignite went 3-1 in pool play and then escaped with one-point playoff victories to reach the national junior open final. Team MVP Mohring used his Canadian mixed team connection with Marshall to feed him the winning goal in an 11-10 semi-final triumph over Canyon from Vancouver to secure their place on the podium. Ignite then went on to lose 15-9 to Dyno, also from Vancouver, in the final to take the silver medal.
“Going into the tournament, I’d say the team didn’t know if we really felt like we were gonna do that good, and going into the final, we knew the team we were facing, Dyno, was the best team in Canada,” Hyndman recalls. “We were pretty happy to be able to put up a score of 15-9 against them. It’s also one of our program’s best-ever finishes, so it was kind of just a good way to finish off my career as a junior.”
Ottawa’s Wicked West junior women’s team placed seventh at the nationals.
Ottawa women’s & open teams sweep senior divisions at home
The local Phoenix and Stella open and women’s teams made their hometown fans’ umbrellas bounce with excitement as they earned a double Canadian crown for Ottawa amid pouring rain on the final day of the nationals.
Competing in the division without age restrictions, Phoenix was dominant in six victories to reach the medal round, holding every opponent to a single-digit point total.
Phoenix then downed Winnipeg’s General Strike 12-10 in the semi-finals and went on to win the championship in the most dramatic fashion possible over Mephisto from Montreal.
Cameron Harris tossed both the tying and winning assists, while Logan Keillor caught his third goal of the game to give Ottawa the 15-14 triumph.
Daigeler followed up his world junior bronze with national senior gold, though team depth and a balanced attack were the major keys to the Phoenix title, with the team’s top scorer Mike Lee ranking just 38th overall at the tournament.
It was a similar formula for the Stella women, who lost their first game and then reeled off seven wins in a row to capture the national crown.
Shannon, the Canadian junior women’s team member, was the only Stella player inside the top-15 of tournament scoring, and Ottawa had just one more inside the top-40.
Shannon showed she was a force at the senior level as well, catching four goals in Stella’s 15-10 championship game victory over Salty from Halifax.
Stella was “incredibly proud” to win gold on home turf, the team wrote on Instagram.
“Winning is nice, but winning while having fun with your friends is something special,” the team added.
Several Ottawa players were also a part of Team Canada for the World Ultimate Championships, which wrapped up on Sept. 7 in Australia.
Ottawa’s Nick Boucher earned a silver medal in the mixed event, while Ottawa’s Amanda Hadwen and Melissa Dunbar were part of the women’s team’s fourth-place finish, and Phoenix’s Harris helped Canada to a fifth-place open showing alongside Ottawa’s Brandon Adibe.