This month, two Gaels teams are getting ready to compete on the national stage.
Both the Queen’s men’s and women’s ultimate frisbee teams will be heading to the Canadian University Ultimate Championships (CUUC) this fall, after each team secured bids through a pair of qualifying tournaments in Ontario.
For the men, the road to Nationals began in Waterloo, ON., where they ran the table at the Canadian Ontario University Ultimate Qualifier (COUUQ) on Sept. 20-21 despite being short-handed. With co-captains Dax Miller, ArtSci ’26, and Kai Huang, ArtSci ’27, away on club duty and head coach Pete Galbraith, MSc ’11, ConEd ’13, also absent, Queen’s still went undefeated to lock in a berth.
“That’s a pretty impressive feat with two very good players missing and missing some leadership there,” Miller said in an interview with The Journal. “It was a testament to how the guys stepped up and played together.”
The women’s side fell just short at COUUQ, losing to the University of Toronto in the final, but rebounded at the Canadian Eastern University Ultimate Championships (CEUUC) on Sept. 27-28 in Belleville, ON. They beat the University of Guelph in the 4th place final to claim one of two available bids. The result means they’ll enter Nationals directly in Division I pool play, rather than grinding through the Friday qualifier, a step forward for a program that hasn’t consistently cleared that hurdle in recent years.
On the other side, the men returned to full strength for the CEUUC and once again showed their quality. Queen’s went undefeated on Saturday, crushed Western University 15-5 in the semifinal, and pushed the defending champions at the University of Ottawa to the limit in an intense final before falling 9-8.
The loss didn’t affect qualification—as they already clinched this at the COUUQ—but it carried lessons. “Even though it didn’t matter for bids, there’s still that competitive fire,” Miller said.
He appreciated his team’s performance and noted that the setup that stopped their momentum won’t be in place at Nationals, given that they’ll follow a score-based system as opposed to a time cap. “We went down early, came back, and everyone felt confident we were going to keep breaking if there wasn’t a hard time cap,” he said. “It was a great learning moment.”
Miller stressed that the Nationals will likely be decided on small margins. “Two or three turnovers can decide a game,” he said. “You lean on the work you’ve put in for six weeks, and you lean on each other.”
The short season leaves little room for error. Tryouts started in early September with over 100 players competing for roster spots. Practices, lifts, and film sessions have packed the calendar since then. With Nationals set for Oct. 18-19 in Brampton, ON., both teams are cramming in final preparations between midterms and reading week, and many players will return to campus early to continue training. Division I of Nationals will feature eight of the country’s best programs, split into two pools.
With both teams qualifying, Queen’s ultimate arrives with momentum and two chances to make a statement on the national stage.
Tags
CUUC, dax miller, Gaels, ultimate frisbee
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