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Grinnellephant lives on at Elephantitis

by Amelia Koford

Ultimate frisbee players came in buses and cars from all over Iowa, Minnesota and Missouri for Grinnell’s Elephantitis tournament last weekend, but one of the most anticipated attendees arrived by mail.

David Kennedy / The Scarlet & Black (web.grinnell.edu/sandb) Ultimate Frisbee

The homemade elephant costume that serves as the team’s mascot had been at Nick Johnson ’06’s house until a few days before the tournament, and with Johnson studying abroad, the Grinnell team feared that the tradition of the Grinnellephant would die. But thanks to Johnson’s mother and the postal service, the elephant costume made it to Grinnell on Friday in time for the tournament.

“The elephant really makes our tournament unique,” said women’s co-captain Samantha Worzalla ’07. “No other tournament has a mascot like that.”

Grinnell’s third annual ultimate frisbee tournament drew eleven men’s teams and six women’s teams from a variety of colleges.

They competed all day Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 17-18, playing on four fields on Mac Field, two at Grinnell High School, one at the soccer field and one at the track.

The winner of the men’s tournament was Iowa State, and Washington University took home the women’s title.

Grinnell contributed three men’s teams and one women’s team. “We decided to have two Grinnell B teams instead of just one because of the vast amounts of people that have been coming out to practices,” said men’s co-captain Noah Bindman ’07.

The non-winning teams were not ranked, but Bindman estimates that the A team finished near the middle of the pack. “It’s definitely the best Grinnell’s ever played since I’ve been here,” he said.

The women’s team finished lower in the ranks, partially because some key players graduated last year. “As a really new team playing against more experienced teams, we did really well,” said women’s co-captain Renata Heberton ’06.

“The tournament was great and the party was great, which is more important,” said Bindman. Dining hall supervisor Lyle Bauman let the team use his farm near Brooklyn, Iowa for the Frisbee party, which included a barbecue this year.

Elephantitis was not the only Frisbee-filled day Mac Field has seen this year. On Sept. 3, the team put on a game to 100 (normal Frisbee games are to 13). The epic event was called Good v. Evil, with the “good” team wearing light shirts and the “evil” team wearing dark or no shirts.

One of the defining moments occurred after dark, when some spectators stripped down and began chanting “Evil, evil.” “It was inspirational,” said men’s co-captain Richard West ’06.

The game lasted seven hours. The teams had to play with a glow disc toward the end of the ultimate frisbee marathon, which ran until 9:00 p.m. Good won out in the end, 100-99.

“The moral of the game: good always prevails,” said Heberton.

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