On Feb. 28, St. Olaf’s Vortex Ultimate Frisbee Team headed south to Illinois to kick off their spring ultimate frisbee season in the 2026 Midwest Throwdown. Now, the women’s team is preparing for regionals and, hopefully, a return to nationals in late May. With this jam-packed schedule quickly approaching, Vortex has a lot to prepare for.
Leading up to the Midwest Throwdown, the team focused on logistics and planning how to efficiently spend their practice time.
“We usually have focused practices. Working on things that we would like to improve during our tournament,” Maggie Walsh ’26 said in an interview with The Olaf Messenger. Walsh is captain, alongside teammates Char Batchelor ’26 and Rachel Katzovitz ’27.
Due to the Minnesota weather, the team has been holding practice in Tostrud Field House, forcing them to adjust to outdoor conditions during their first game.
“Our other big opponent was the wind,” Walsh said. “We have been playing in the field house with no wind, so playing in the wind during the weekend was a challenge. But our players did a phenomenal job of playing and cheering for each other.”
Vortex, a Division III (D3) team, finished in third place in Illinois, only losing to Division I (D1) opposition.
“We were seeded third going into the tournament, so coming out third meant we held our seed, which I think we were satisfied with,” Antigone Van Slooten ’28 said in an interview with The Olaf Messenger.
“The team did really well overall. The only team we lost to was a D1 team in [the] semifinals, and even then, we came very close to winning that game,” Lexi Swiglo ’27 said in an interview with The Olaf Messenger. “It was frustrating losing in semifinals when we came so close, but we feel satisfied with getting third in the tournament since we were still the top D3 team and beat several D1 teams as well.”
After competing in another tournament in North Carolina over spring break, St. Olaf will be hosting conference regionals from April 11 to 12. “We are all really excited for [regionals] this year because we got first in our conference last year, which let us get to nationals,” Van Slooten said.
Vortex players are confident about their chances at regionals.
“I’m most looking forward to hosting our conference [and] regionals tournament,” Swiglo said. “I think we have a good chance at winning first in our region, and assuming we do well at that tournament, I’m very excited for nationals in Illinois at the end of May.”
“It means a lot to have a home tournament my senior year,” Walsh said. “I hope that people from campus and other friends and family show up to support. [I’m] really excited to showcase what our team has become.”
