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1999 National Champions!

After sweeping through the North Carolina sectional and Atlantic Coast Regional tournaments, the NCSU ultimate team, Jinx, joined 15 other teams from across North America in Boulder, Colorado for the 1999 Jockey UPA College National Championships.

This was NC State's third trip to the national tournament ('96, '98 and '99) and the team entered the tournament as the #3 seed behind three time defending champions UC Santa Barbara ("The Black Tide") and Brown University.

Over 200 university teams try each year to qualify for the national tournament, with only the top two teams from each of 8 regions making it to the show. The national tournament uses a format similar to the soccer World Cup, with the 16 teams divided into four pools with the top teams qualifying for a single elimination knock-out tournament.

After going 3-0 in pool play (including a key win over the #6 seed, Stanford University 15-13), State defeated the home team #5 University of Colorado (15-10), #2 Brown University (15-9) and #1 UC Santa Barbara (16-14)! The title was NCSU's first ever in ultimate.

For complete commentary on the tournament, including plenty of pictures, we have excerpts from Tony Leonardo's article in the 2^nd quarter Ultimate Players Association newsletter. All excerpts are copyrighted by Tony Leonardo and the UPA.

Friday: Pool Play
Saturday: Semis and Quarters
Sunday: The Finals