University of Canterbury win Ultimate Gold at Home

Despite the cold weather and intermittent rain, the nine teams participating in the 2024 NZ Tertiary Ultimate Championships at Ilam Fields were buzzing to be there. The pristine fields provided the perfect playing surface for the teams from AUT, the University of Auckland, Victoria University of Wellington, the University of Otago, and the hosts University of Canterbury.

Saturday’s pool play results followed the pre-tournament seedings, with no upsets across the 16 games. In Pool A, defending champions University of Otago Toroa progressed undefeated with the University of Canterbury Honey Badgers joining them in the top four. In Pool B it was the University of Auckland Flood finishing on top, with AUT also making the semi-finals.

Sunday started with bottom-5 round robin matches before the semi finals got underway. In semi-final 1, Otago Toroa comfortably defeated AUT 15-4 to be the first team through to the grand finale. Semi-final 2 was much tighter however, as the UC Honey Badgers eventually defeated last year’s finalists University of Auckland Flood 13-10.

The grand final was a Pool A rematch, with Toroa hoping to replicate the previous day’s result to defend their title. They looked to be in control of the match as they held a small lead throughout, but as the time cap neared the Honey Badgers mounted a comeback, defending their end zone strongly and eventually bringing the scores level at 12-12.

Time had expired and on universe point, the Honey Badger’s Finn Mckenzie caught the disc on the sideline in the end zone to win the final and spark wild celebrations from the home crowd. The victory marked UC’s first title at the event since 2017, a long break between gold medals.

University of Canterbury Ultimate Club president and Honey Badgers team member Tye Lawson said the team was thrilled with the victory. “The last point was unreal, it was off one throw after a turnover and we had won which was just nuts. After losing quite badly yesterday it just felt so good.”

He was also pleased with how the club and local ultimate community rallied to put on a great event. “It went really smoothly. They weren’t any big issues and everyone came together to make sure everything was done – from my perspective everything went well.”

Full results and links to event photos and a replay of the live stream can be found below.

Final Results – 2024 NZ Tertiary Ultimate Championship

1st – University of Canterbury Honey Badgers

2nd – University of Otago Toroa

3rd – University of Auckland Flood

4th – AUT

5th – University of Auckland Flow

6th – Victoria University of Wellington

7th – University of Otago Hoiho

8th – University of Canterbury Pythons

9th – University of Canterbury Iguanas

Spirit Award: University of Auckland Flood