Former Big Ten, state champion from Zeeland part of ultimate frisbee U.S. Open title

Sara Nitz was one of the most well-rounded athletes in Holland-area history.

At Zeeland East, she was a state champion in the high jump and was an all-area and all-conference basketball and volleyball player.

She went on to become a Big Ten champion at Michigan .

Sports were always a big part of her life, and still are nearly a decade later.

And she is still competing at a high level.

Nitz, 33, was recently part of a team - Ann Arbor Hybrid - that won the nationally televised U.S. Open Ultimate Frisbee championship in Aurora, Colorado.

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"Right after college I was a little worried after the competition ended. I wanted to fill that void. My uncle had a team and got me into it. It turned out to be very fun and I loved the people. It is just a great community," Nitz said. "We have been second in a lot of tournaments and it feels so great to see us clinch a title."

Nitz lives in Midland where she works as a materials engineer. This is her fourth season on Ann Arbor Hybrid and has been part of some elite women's teams during her nine-year career as well.

"I started playing pickup games and then joined a club team," she said.

So what is ultimate?

"It is a cross between soccer, basketball and football. You score like football. One point fore each score in the end zone. You have handlers and cutters and an offensive and defensive line - and you have to move down the field. It is a lot of running," she said. "I am a cutter and on the defensive line. It helps being tall and fast."

Nitz is also a lefty, which gives her a little bit of an advangage.

"Defensively you have to push someone a certain way and being long and lefty really helps," she said.

Now, Nitz and her teammates are aiming for a spot at nationals, where 16 teams qualify.

"Now it is all preparation for nationals in October," she said. "It is really big for us as a program. We first got to nationals in 2021. The Midwest has struggle on the ultimate front for a while. We hadn't gone up against some of the big teams until then and we got second place.

"It cemented that we could play at this level."

Contact sports editor Dan D’Addona at Dan.D’Addona@hollandsentinel.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as  Twitter @DanDAddona or Facebook @HollandSentinelSport s.

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Former Big Ten, state champion from Zeeland part of ultimate frisbee U.S. Open title