After 85 hours and one minute of continuous playing time, a dislocated shoulder, a
dislocated knee, a broken toe, various blisters, sprains and strains, the EWU ultimate team
broke the Guinness World Record for the longest continuous ultimate marathon ever played.

The match started March 22 at 9:59 a.m., the record was officially broken by March 25 at 6:15 p.m., but the team stopped playing four hours and 15 minutes later at 11:00 p.m., according to captain Zack Ranck.

Playing on the Roos field, there were two teams of 15 players: the black team and the white team. During playing time, there were seven players to a team with rotating pods playing 12-hour shifts.

The world record holders are composed of 18 current EWU students and alumni with 12 from Whitworth University, Boise Ultimate and Spokane Ultimate.

The team was required to play by the World Flying Disc Federation rules and regulations. Each game was played until 17 points were scored with a 10-minute halftime after the first nine points.

Nobody complained and nobody gave up, according to Ranck. “I thought somebody would bounce or end their shift, but even with a broken toe or dislocated knee, [everyone was] still 100 percent ready to get on the field and play and finish with no thought of leaving. That was definitely the most memorable for me.”

“The hardest part was the nighttime because it got down to 20-something degrees. Everyone out there was freezing. We’re all injured. We were just trying to get to sunrise,” said Ranck.

Junior and exercise science major Melissa Cogburn’s worst shift was from 1:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. “What made it bad was it was cold and miserable. We were all determined to push our bodies past what we were able to handle,” said Cogburn.

“The EMT [Anastasia Black] went through all her equipment, every single wrap, every single sling, brace, tape, everything,” said Ranck.

The white team supported the black team because they had so many injuries, and they tried to finish the match without getting more injuries, according to Cogburn.

“Almost all of the injuries happened on the black team so they were definitely playing without subs for a good majority of the time,” said Ranck.

There were never any replacements for injured team members once the match started, according to Ranck.

“The longest amount of sleep I got was five hours. After that, we all had to cut down our sleeping, play more and nap at the field while we could,” said Cogburn.

Many times Black had to pull players from their shift. She would tell them, “I won’t medically clear you until you get some sleep for so many hours.“

Black stayed on site the whole weekend, only sleeping eight hours because she was so worried about the players.

The team went through two bottles of ibuprofen, according to Ranck. Black monitored their ibuprofen. “They were just downing those. And I’m like, ‘No, you’re going to overdose yourselves,’” said Black.

Throughout the whole match there was music playing and a heater available. The team played some Disney and old pop music to get the entire field singing songs together. “It was pretty funny,” said Ranck.

Not quite to the halfway point, the ultimate players were in disbelief at what seemed to be the slow passage of time. As soon as the event was over, however, everyone wanted to keep playing, according to Ranck.

The most memorable moment for Black was when the team finally broke the record. “We were just so ecstatic, we just broke out, hugging each other, we were just so excited having broken the record. [We were] making really random jokes with each other. It was a really cool time, something you don’t do very often,” said Black.

Jeff Kaufman and Anthony Gossard of Boise Ultimate gave each participant a disc to commemorate the event and each participant signed each disc at the end of the event, according to Ranck.

The team will host a 5-on-5 ultimate tournament that will be open to anybody who wants to come and it will be free for all Eastern students. It will be in late April, showcasing what ultimate is all about.

The World Record Holders
Team White: Zack Ranck, Levi Fuller, Maria Claxton, Jeff Kaufman, Anthony Gossard,  Josh Diacogiannis, Jon Rubertas, Daniel Gimbel,  Mike Price,  Austin Davis,  Jen Cogburn, Jake Howell, Michael O’Neill, Carl Chan, Neil Campbell

Team Black: Alex Ho, Andrew Raynor, Mike Beacham, Cameron Calbeck, Aaron Bracht, Nate Johnston, Spencer Bron, Melissa Cogburn, Cody Vanderlin, Christa Gentili, Austen Davis, Braden Nash, Adam Gaulke, Kerina Weinbach, James Robin