The annual Zanderthon Throw-Down took place on February 21st at the University of Wisconsin Platteville. This event had the following teams represented: Platteville, Illinois, Stout, Eau Claire, Nebraska, Winona State, River Falls, La Crosse, Stevens Point, Iowa, and UWP alumni. This was one the biggest events ever held in the central region. In previous years, the Zanderthon Throw-Down was just between UWP and UNL and just last year it was UWP vs UIUC. It show cased a total of ten teams. Six current member teams and four upcoming teams with the potential of joining the league this semester.
We also had two women’s matches on the day and added another team to the women’s standings with UNL having their first official match as a club! There were a lot of exciting matches with a few overtimes. Let’s take a look at the results and hear some thoughts from players on the day. Pictures below were taken by Emily Diekmann.
Here are the results on the day:
UNL 5-1 UIUC
UNL 5-1 UWP
UNL 9-0 Iowa
UIUC 3-2 UWP
UWP 5-0 Winona
UIUC 8-0 Iowa
Alumni 6-0 Winona
Alumni 5-0 Mixed
Iowa 5-2 Mixed
Winona 4-3 Mixed (OT)
Women’s
UWP 5-4 UNL (OT)
Mixed 5-4 Winona
The following questions were asked from players in attendance.
Erik Zander-How do you feel about your team’s performance?
Alejandro Alanis (UIUC)-We performed less than ideal, our communication was lacking as well as our own team expectations. While we did lose we learned from how we lost. At the very least we will always improve.
Dylan Fabry (UWP)-I’d say our team played well for the most part but we got a lot to work on yet.
Malaki Shriner Horne (UNL)-I feel really good about how we played. We came in with a clear plan, and everyone stuck to their role. Whether it was getting key outs, making catches, or communicating on the court, everyone did their job. We stayed disciplined and trusted each other as a team.
Lucas Hesson (Iowa)-I feel pretty solid about our performance as a team. I was really thrilled with how we performed against the mixed team, beating them 5-2. It was refreshing to see us when our first match, although it wasn’t official. It speaks to the resilience of our team and the fact we only had 11 people for all 3 games. I noticed us improving all around, which makes me and the rest of the team generally optimistic.
Logan Leeman (Stout)-I think our team performed well this weekend, we didn’t get the outcome we wanted but we definitely improved throughout the day, I liked our communication during the 2nd and 3rd games.
Joaquin Perez (UWEC)-I feel very good with my team’s performance. We’ve especially gotten a lot better with communicating with each other during matches, and we’re able to hang with better teams and go the distance with them even if we lose.
Kaylee Kapalczynski (WSU)-I feel that our team did a great job and had a wonderful time learning and playing with a new format. Even though we are pretty new to the format of the game and the specific dodgeballs, everyone did well lasting long in the matches and holding their own. In general it was a great experience to try something new and everyone had a wonderful time meeting the others at the tournament as well.
Michael Sauca (UWRF)-My team did a great job as our first tournament.
Jacob Schetter (UWL)-I feel that my team performed well in terms of the level of preparation we had. As the day went on, I believe we got better and started get a real feel for the game.
Grace Lenz (UWSP)-I feel like our team gave our best effort and tried to work together even though it was difficult being mixed and never playing together before. I feel like we played with full effort during every match.
EZ-Any players that stood out on your team or others?
AA-While everyone put in a great effort I have to give a shout-out to #95 Naila, she had incredible catches that saved our team multiple times. I would also shout-out #92 Jaden Stribling, he’s one of our most promising rookies and his consistency and dedication has led to a powerful right side with Jaden offering lots of offensive power.
DF-A couple players that stood out were Ethan Schmeling and Alex Kirchman. Ethan was toe tapping people and Alex did really well even as a new player.
MSH-There wasn’t one single player who stood out because it was truly a team effort. Different guys stepped up in big moments, but overall everyone played at a high level. I would also like to shout out the girls on the team. They played their first ever woman’s no-sting match together and for never having practice no-sting they played way over everybody’s expectations. I’m excited for their future and hopefully they are able to play in more woman’s matches.
LH-Someone that really stuck out on our team especially was Camden Richgruber (#16). He had a fantastic three games, especially in the catching department. He had a remarkable game against Nebraska specifically and was a big reason we had a solid first half against them. Each player for us truly did a great job, but Camden really stuck out. I was also impressed with individuals in the mixed team who were all around great players.
LL-Michael Sauca on River Falls was fun to play with, he brought the energy up and was very uplifting, he will be a great leader for that team, number 15 on Iowa seemed to be a threat each point we played, and the la Crosse players will be dangerous when they can field their own team, and from Stout, I don’t think one person stood out to me because I felt that everyone on the court was performing really well.
JP-On my team the players who have stood out the most are Cleo, Jacob, and Jason. From other teams, Winona State had a girl who was really good at catching who impressed me, Megan Becker.
KK-For our team specifically, I think two of our strongest players were Megan Becker and Beau Grindland. All of our players did extremely well and competed well with the other teams but Megan and Beau stood out to me. Megan definitely led our team in the amount of catches we had and was often the last one standing that allowed the game to continue going. With this, Beau competed well on an offensive stand point throwing a lot of kills. Overall, a lot of our players did well but these two stood out to me specifically on our team.
MS-The teams that stood out were Stout and Eau Claire, they were able to adjust to us being added to the team.
JS-Players on all teams stood out such as players on Stout who threw the ball very well along with the Platteville team who had great chemistry.
GL-UW-Platteville players as well as Stout stood out to me as great athletes during this tournament.
EZ-What are you looking forward to next?
AA-As VP, I am looking forward to strictly the central cup. We were always a team that could win but could never stay winning. We plan to come in and take the cup with our new strategies and positioning. I am also looking forward to the development of this club in the coming years, we’re expanding and have had lots of stability thus far, with lots of rookies in development this team is promising.
DF-I’m looking forward to keep improving and hopefully have everything figured out by nationals.
MSH-We’re really looking forward to the Central Cup in a couple of weeks. It’s another opportunity to prove ourselves and keep building momentum. Our goal is to come home with the Central Cup and head into Nationals undefeated. We know the competition will have a game plan to stop us, but we’re confident in our preparation and excited to keep improving as a team.
LH-I am most looking forward to the central region cup that we will be hosting on March 7th. I am hoping we can get as many teams there as possible, and try and get our team to get their first official win.
LL-I’m looking forward to a tournament when stout can field a fuller team with 11 or 12 players, because once we get to that number I feel that we can be a threat.
JP-I’m looking forward to hosting the home tournament in March at Eau Claire.
KK-I’m looking forward to more opportunities to give our members to play in more competitive settings. We typically play casual games of dodgeball so it’s always fun to change it up and try a more competitive format whenever we can. I know many of our members are also excited for the tournament in Winona and are looking forward to playing different formats as well as showing others a game or two of how we typically play if possible!
MS-Things I would be looking forward to being able to coordinate and beat the alumni team.
JS-We are looking forward to building up our team, finding our place and competing in future tournaments.
GL-I’m looking forward to practices getting started and getting to know more about the game. I’m excited to learn more about the sport and get dodgeball a part of UWSP club sports.
Final Thoughts
This was a great weekend and it was awesome to see so many teams in attendance and with any luck at the end of the season some of these up and coming teams will officially be a part of the league. They look to compete in a few more events in March. If you missed the action and would like to watch, click on the following link (UW-Platteville Dodgeball) and make sure to subscribe to the channel so you get a notification when we go live at the next event. Also, the following link (Zanderthon Throw-Down pictures) are to the pictures taken last weekend. If you use any of them, make sure to give photo credit!