University Men’s Indoor Nationals 2025: Division 2 Preview

By Kabir ‘Kb’ Adkoli

A new semester can mean a new beginning and a lot of change, but pivoting from “I’m so academically cooked” to “we’re so back”, and a packed ultimate calendar are two things that don’t change. The first nationals of the year is men’s division 2, and for those who are unfamiliar with how university ultimate works, here’s a quick rundown. University regionals are held across various regions in the UK in November, with the top performing teams qualifying for nationals in February. The number of bids for each region changes each year, but for 2024/25 in Scotland, the top three teams qualified to division 1 with the next three teams qualifying to division 2.

The three Scottish teams playing UMIN division 2 this weekend are Strathclyde, St Andrews 2 and Heriot-Watt. In the build up to the biggest university men’s event of the year so far, I got to talk to the three team captains to see what they think of the upcoming weekend.

Strathclyde: 5th Seed

Reigning Div 2 champions Strathclyde are back in the same division as last year, only this time they’re 5th seed as opposed to 16th seed. Their pool consists of Bath 2, Bangor 1 and Manchester 2 which looks easy on paper thanks to the presence of two second teams, but has the ability to cough up some nasty surprises. However, the Dark Horses have demonstrated that they possess talented players – they put up elite performances against teams such as St Andrews at regionals, and took an undefeated Glasgow team to universe point, which even though they lost, evidenced the team’s grit (outdoors ultimate is my coping mechanism).

Here’s what captain Kai Dias-Smith had to say:

What are your team’s goals for the weekend?
Ultimately, our team goal is to retain the national title. After a disappointing regionals that in all honesty, got our heads down a bit, we’re looking forward to getting back out on the pitch and showing what we’re actually made of. As a team, we’re looking forward to going down to Nottingham, as it is the first indoor nationals away from home for a lot of us. Overall, we’re going to have a really good time and hopefully come back with a medal.

How does moving from the relatively larger 3G turf pitches to hardcourt change your team’s play style?
As much as we love a 3G indoors pitch, we are used to training and playing on hard court. It will be different, for sure, but we are looking forward to the experience and it shouldn’t effect us too much.

Who on your team do you trust with the speakers and conversely, is there anyone banned from queuing music?
Tom Ham is an easy choice if you’re looking for some “white girl bangers”. If we’re looking for hype, we hand the the speaker to Euan Hayes. But at all costs, we avoid the young Angus Bain as he loves whale noises and audio books.

St Andrews 2: 6th Seed

I might be speaking for myself here, but everyone seems to underestimate second teams like Saints 2, who went on a giant killing run at regionals, upsetting teams like Glasgow on their way to Div 2 Nats. They are the only second team in a pool that also includes York, Chichester and University of East Anglia. However, this shouldn’t phase the team as they rely on pure dogged determination to get over the line which might see them continue their shock run.

Captain Aidan Falter had this to say about the team:

What are your team’s goals for the weekend?
This is the first time St Andrew’s are sending two teams to indoor nationals. Although we are a second team, we know we can beat many of the first teams competing in this tournament and one of our main goals is to demonstrate that. Many of the players on this team have never played with each other before, likely putting us at a disadvantage to other teams. We hope to strengthen our team chemistry this weekend and make people question how we aren’t a first team.

Our focus this weekend will also be on maintaining good spirit. As a team consisting of a lot of beginner ultimate players who aren’t familiar with the rules, our spirit scores suffered quite a bit at regionals. We aim to keep spirit of the game at the centre of our team this weekend, and we hope that this is reflected in our spirit score.

How does moving from the relatively larger 3G turf pitches to hardcourt change your team’s play style?
Having never played a game as a team on hardcourt, I expect us to come in with a more cautious mentality. Additionally, the fact our squad only has seven players makes injuries a serious concern so we will have to limit our bids and layout attempts.

Who on your team do you trust with the speakers and conversely, is there anyone banned from queuing music?
Daniel Fridylamd is our designated DJ. Coming from New York, every song in his playlist is a guaranteed banger!

Heriot-Watt: 14th seed

The final Scottish representative at Div 2 Nats is Heriot-Watt, who have been grouped in a pool with Cambridge, Cardiff and Kent. Regionals was a fairytale for this team as they overcame a terrible Saturday to go on a tear on Sunday when the lights shined brightest. The format of a two day tournament will surely help this team as they look to put up a strong showing over the weekend.

Here’s what captain Logan Norris-Lambe had to say about Heriot-Watt’s chances:

What are your team’s goals for the weekend?
To quote our president Sam, “don’t be bottom 3”, though speaking in the long term this is a great opportunity for our newer plays to improve considerably against strong competition. This would give Heriot-Watt a strong roster for next year and a strong base for the future captains and players. Though yes, Sam is right, not bottom 3 would be good too!

How does moving from the relatively larger 3G turf pitches to hardcourt change your team’s play style?
Our play style is quite heavily affected by the shift, as we rely on speed to make quick cuts enabling our players to set up give-go plays. Not being able to accelerate as fast will also be a hindrance and any layouts on hardcourt will prove dangerous.

Who on your team do you trust with the speakers and conversely, is there anyone banned from queuing music?
Anyone but myself, my playlist reads like a ’13 Reasons Why’ list so I will most definitely not be on the speakers. I trust our Driver Liahm, however, as he plays The Jungle Book and Pokemon (who doesn’t want to be the very best)?

Kb’s predictions

Now for the chaos, it’s time for my predictions. As someone who has played against and watched each of these teams play indoors and outdoors over the course of the last semester, I hope to have a good idea as to how they will fare.

Saints 2 were the surprise team at regionals where they finished 5th, but it’s difficult to see a team which hasn’t played much together be able to repeat the same trick at a higher level. Additionally, while the team is super-athletic, hard court is unforgiving and a small squad size of just seven is going to make this an uphill weekend. This isn’t to say the team won’t do well though, as I can see them catching teams sleeping to finish in at 13th.

Going off of Logan’s words, I’m going to have to say Heriot-Watt will struggle to get things going on hardcourt and might repeat their Saturday performances from regionals. While things have looked good indoors, it is difficult to ignore their struggles outdoors as they are yet to put up a win. However, in words unprecedented in Kb history, I’m going to back Heriot-Watt to repeat their phoenix-like rise on Sunday when they will go on to surpass President Sam’s goal and finish in 10th.

Strathclyde are a confusing team to predict as I know the players on this team the best thanks to them also being based in Glasgow. The team lost a few players from last year’s victorious team but have also added a few new recruits. I’m going to attribute the regionals performance that was substandard, in their own words, to a lack of cohesion in the team, which I think would have surely evaporated as February rolls in. There are some elite teams at this tournament such as UCL and York, and despite that, I’m going to tip the Dark Horses to retain their Div 2 crown.

That’s all from me, good luck to everyone representing their universities and the whole Scottish ultimate community this weekend.

Feel free to follow the proceedings of the weekend here.