Both Whitman Sweets teams have swept their regional tournaments and qualified for the national tournament.
The Whitman Sweets are Whitman’s ultimate frisbee club team. The Sweets are comprised of two teams, the gender diverse, or GD, team and the open team. The GD team competes in the women’s division, while the open team competes in the men’s, both at the Division III level.
The teams’ regular seasons consist mainly of a few tournaments before gearing up for their final regional tournament to hopefully qualify for nationals.
“We do two to three tournaments during the regular season, but that doesn’t really do anything for qualifying us for nationals,” said junior Josie Bygrave.
Bygrave is one of the captains for the GD team, alongside Liv Napadensky, Gabbie Campbell and Ella Johnson.
“We have one main tournament, that’s both our regional and conference tournament. We have such a small region that they fit all the schools into one,” said Bygrave. “Then we get bids for our region for the national tournament.”
For the GD team, that regional tournament title and a bid to the national tournament were in their sights right from the start. After qualifying for nationals in 2023, the Sweets’ GD team struggled in their 2024 regional tournament and didn’t receive a bid for the national tournament. The team’s focus was to return to nationals and get to compete once more.
The GD team went into their conference tournament and absolutely dominated, though Bygrave would say they did “pretty well.”
“We won the whole tournament, which felt really good because we didn’t make it to nationals last year. We were all really amped up to come back and put everything we had out on the field, and I think that really shows,” said Bygrave. “The highest number of points another team scored against us was five, so our closest game was 15-5.”
This is an incredible accomplishment given the strength of the tournament the GD team went into. While Whitman ranked as the No. 4 team in the nation, they saw stiff competition from both Lewis & Clark and Portland, ranked No. 6 and No. 10 in the nation, respectively. More than that, Puget Sound also ranked in the top 20 teams in the nation, meaning the Sweets won a tournament including four of the top 20 teams in the country.
Going into this season, the Sweets’ open team had a high standard to uphold. In both 2023 and 2024, the Whitman Sweets competed in the national tournament.
“We’ve been [to nationals] both of my [past] years,” said junior Nico Darringer.
Darringer is a captain and member of the Sweets open team. Going into this season, their goal was to win their regional tournament yet again and find their way back to nationals.
“We swept. We technically had to upset for our final game in terms of ranking … ” said Darringer.
Lewis & Clark was No. 5 in the country while Whitman was ranked No. 6.
“ … but we haven’t lost to Lewis & Clark in the regional finals. So it was kinda just to show everyone that we weren’t gonna lose to them.”
Not only are both teams simply qualifying for nationals, they are each serious contenders to go deep into the tournament. The open team’s dominance of the region was rewarded by their recent increase in rank from No. 6 to No. 5, seeing Lewis & Clark drop below them. The GD team left their regional tournament unscathed, claiming the No. 3 national ranking going into the national tournament.
The tournament is going to be held in Burlington, Washington, from May 26 to 29. In the meantime, the teams are going to continue training and playing to ensure they are prepared for nationals.
Over this last weekend, the Sweets’ teams hosted O-Fest, a mixed tournament which brought in 14 teams, including two Sweets teams, divided between upper and lower classmen. Games were hosted on Ankeny Field, the Whitman Athletic Fields and Harper Joy Field.
“Typically, college is just men’s and women’s divisions, so O-Fest is non-traditionalist in that sense,” said Darringer. “It’s just a nice, fun and laid-back tournament … other schools also combine their teams and come.”
The upperclassmen team made it to the finals and tied for first, and the lowerclassmen team made it to the prequarters stage.
O-Fest brings back the emphasis of what ultimate represents on Whitman’s campus: community and fun.
“We have one of our largest freshman classes in the last four years … and those that have played before have talked about how they wanted an environment where they could be competitive, but not competitive with each other on the team,” said senior Liv Napadensky. “I think that speaks to the atmosphere and chemistry that we have on the team.”
Despite the teams’ successes, the Sweets are still a site of community building before anything else.
“I didn’t know about Frisbee before I came here, but I was at the activities fair and talked to a couple of the captains. They all seemed so nice and the vibe seemed really chill, and so I was like ‘Okay, might as well try it,’” said Napadensky. “I just instantly fell in love with everything. O-Fest is such a core of what frisbee is. It’s just a fun time throwing it around.”
With the national competition just under a month away, O-Fest certainly came at a good time to remind the teams that this is all for fun in the first place. With a mindset focusing on fun, a strong team chemistry and the skill to take on any team in the country, the Whitman Sweets stand a great chance of pushing far into the national tournament.
