Darkside and Pleiades, UNC’s men’s and women’s national champion ultimate frisbee teams, will be well-represented at July’s World Flying Disc Federation U24 World Championships. Nine men and women will make the journey to Nottingham, England to compete for Team USA in the championships, which will take place July 1-8.
“When we traveled to the tryouts, we stayed all at the same house,” said Kevin Pignone, a player on the men’s team (called the “open team” in the championship) who graduated from UNC this May. “You looked around, and you were like, ‘Wow, these are some of my best friends… I’m super glad I get to play with some of my best friends.”
Pignone, who will be attending graduate school at Carolina this fall while continuing to play with Darkside, is one of five UNC students on the open team. Ben Dameron, Matthew McKnight, Joshua Singleton and Rutledge Smith are also on the team. Darkside’s coach, David Allison, is one of the team’s assistant coaches.
Kailyn Lowder will represent UNC on the mixed team, while Erica Birdsong, Dawn Culton, and Theresa Yu will play on the women’s team. Carolina has the most combined players on the three Team USA rosters.
Pignone told Chapelboro the three teams of 24 players each were selected from a tryout group of about 200 people. Those squads will participate in a brief training camp the week before the championship which will prepare them to take on the world’s best teams. Those sides come from countries like Italy, Australia, Singapore, Colombia and Germany. Though Team USA has been challenged in the past, the Americans are considered the favorite in the event.
“It’s interesting to see how ultimate manifests in other countries,” Pignone said. “Especially not particularly large countries, or countries that you would think of as having [influence] from other American sports.”
Team Australia also has a Carolina connection. Darkside’s own Lucien Noël will don the green and gold at the championship. Though Noël’s team is not in the same pool with Team USA, Pignone said he’s looking forward to the chance to compete against his friend.
“He knows our team better than almost any other international player competing against us,” said Pignone. “I think it’ll be really interesting… we don’t really know the Australian guys as much.”
The tournament’s format is similar to the collegiate national championships: pool play will make up the first few days of the championship, followed by a single-elimination knockout round which will crown a world champion.
This year’s U24 championship is the first of its kind since 2019. The event normally takes place every two years, but it was not held in 2021 due to the pandemic. The mixed and open American teams have won four consecutive gold medals, and the women’s team has won gold three times.
But despite that nearly unblemished run of dominance, Pignone told Chapelboro winning gold this summer is no sure thing.
“Especially as the sport gets older, other countries are getting a lot better,” he said. “They’re getting much more competitive.”
Featured image via Brian Whittier
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