SEAN MCGRATH
Sports Editor
First, he came to Fredonia in an effort to “change the world.” But, this past Saturday, Bill Nye donned the
Cornell University red and looked to become a gamechanger with their men’s ultimate frisbee team.
In preparation for a run to the National Championships in May, Fredonia contacted Cornell about a potential visit for a few scrimmages to get some added practice in. When Nye paid a surprise visit to Cornell on the same day and saw the frisbee team upon his arrival, he immediately laced up and prepared for an ultimate battle.
In the friendly threegame matchup, Nye caught a game winner off of a tipped frisbee to secure the win over the Fredonia Terrifying Turtles in the second game 158. Fortunately, Fredonia managed to band together and pulled off bookend wins in the first and third game, both ending in 1514 wins.
Senior Christian Salvati caught for three points in all three games and played excellent defense, tasked with covering the spry Bill Nye.
In game one, Fredonia kept pace with Cornell, who was just learning to play with the new roster addition.
“Being that Cortland is DI, we really needed to rely on a good control method,” Fredonia senior captain
Dylan Leitner said about the win. “We set out to hone our individual skills and relate them to moving the disc up the field, bringing the game to them.”
Sophomore Brendan Law came in clutch again in the first game of the day, catching three points in the first match, including the catch on “universe point,” to earn the win.
Senior captain Kevin Quinlan commanded the team, scoring five points in game one, four in game two and five in game three, leading the charge against Cornell.
“We are making a legitimate run to a National Championship,” Quinlan said. “We may not be as deep and overall talented as these other colleges, but we wanted to prove that Fredonia has a program that one day will be making a title run. It was a great day, we showed Cornell that we had something to prove, and it was just an overall fun time.”
Making a statement in game one was freshman handler Adam Bubb, who made three for six assists.
Making the highlight film, Bubb had two particularly stellar plays, one in which he “hucked” the frisbee almost the total length of the field, managing to connect with Quinlan to take the lead.
Law’s final point was another play from Bubb, who showed his “greatest” when he laid out to catch an errant pass and, in one turn, shot a beautiful pass that Law ripped out of the air to earn a win in the first game.
Game two had Cornell starting to mesh well with the Science Guy.
Calling it “true chemistry,” this game was all Cornell both offensively and defensively.
Nye managed to do it all. He played both cutter and handler, with the winning play where he started by handling, swung the disc to the left of the field and then opened a full sprint down, where a Cornell player “hucked” the frisbee completely downfield.
Nye almost missed out on the throw, but a last second lay out catch earned the win for Cornell in the 158 decision. Law and Leitner added two points each to Quinlan’s four points.
Not looking to be stifled on offense twice in a row, Fredonia brought a huddle — almost turtle shelllike — to refocus and start the game.
In the third game, Fredonia brought it all.
Using crisp passes and beautifully drawn out plays, Fredonia managed to widen the field and utilize every area to its fullest.
Mixing short concise passes with sharp, medium and long throws, Fredonia really lit the lamp when it came to scoring.
Unfortunately, so did Cornell.
In an all out offensive shootout, Fredonia and Cornell took it right to the last point.
Facing “ultimate” point for the second time, Fredonia turned on the defense to ensure that they would trap them close for a potential turnover that could be an easy win. What happened next was almost storybook.
In a oneonone defensive scheme, Leitner edged off of the Cornell handler, who looked downfield for a breakout play.
Watching the play develop, Quinlan left his man to help Leitner add a little bit more pressure to the handler.
Seeing the open man a little bit away, the handler threw the disc and tried to split Leitner and Quinlan and, in a brilliant adjustment, Quinlan got a hand on and deflected the disc just enough that it went the total opposite way, right into Leitner’s hand.
Facing a twoonone situation, Leitner had only a few yards to go.
He threw up a curving toss, which bent perfectly into Quinlan’s arms.
The Turtles had pulled off a great play, one that ended the game right there. Following the games, both teams hung out, explored downtown Cornell, grilled and just relaxed.
“It’s really something that two teams can call each other up, work out a day and show what true competition is,” Nye said. “If the world leaders could act like these two fine teams did today, there’s no telling what great things they could do.
“Maybe, change the world.”