Ученик школы Мерсер-Айленд занял второе место на мировом чемпионате по ультивейболу в Испании

Goodrum has the Ultimate summer vacation Published 6:30 pm Tuesday, August 25, 2026 Mercer Islander Nikolas Goodrum called his eight-day summer excursion to Logrono, Spain, a once-in-a-lifetime experience. In July, he travelled to Europe for the first time ever to play on the United States U20 open men’s team at the World Flying Disc Federation 2026 World Junior Ultimate Championships. When the final disc was thrown, Goodrum — a Mercer Island High School (MIHS) Class of 2025 alumnus — and his 24-player squad had amassed a 7-2 record at the prestigious tournament and finished second place overall following a tight 15-12 loss to Canada in the championship game. Goodrum, 18, who has been playing Ultimate since elementary school on Mercer Island, was thrilled to engage in the international competition and make connections with his fellow teammates and opponents. As Goodrum thought about his Ultimate career, he noted: “This has been an amazing experience. I’ve gotten really lucky with a lot of things that just led me to be able to get really good and play at the highest levels. I was able to be around such an amazing environment. Seattle’s a really good Frisbee place. There’s a lot of really good teams, really nice people, that I was able to love the sport and want to get better.” The sport of Ultimate features handlers and cutters firing a disc up and down the field to each other en route to try and score points in the end zone while defenders attempt to thwart the attack. The seven-versus-seven games are split up into two halves. It all began for Goodrum with his Ultimate-playing parents taking him to watch their games, and then his parents launched elementary and middle school teams for their son and others to enter the Ultimate world. Goodrum competed for four years in MIHS’s thriving program and currently plays at the University of Washington and as a practice player with an adult men’s and women’s club team called Seattle Mixtape. “On the field, Nikolas displays both the skill and the poise of a player well beyond his years. His facility with the disc is impressive, but it’s how well he can read and move with the flow of play that really elevates his game,” said Seattle Mixtape head coach Michael Caldwell, adding that they’re proud of his international success. “Off the field, Nikolas is delightful to be around. He’s quick to smile, easy to chat with, and always ready to learn.” Goodrum, who plays the handler position, feels he brings stability and calmness to often-stressful moments of games to help his team succeed. In order to qualify for the US team, Goodrum first filled out an application, wrote an essay about his Ultimate experience and added two recommendation letters from Caldwell and Goodrum’s other coach Mark Munoz. The US team accepted Goodrum in a group of about 100 men and 100 women to try out for the squads at training camps on the east and west coasts. Goodrum’s rigorous, two-day camp took place in Dublin, California. “They basically split us into multiple groups, and then assign different tryout committee coaches to run through drills, run through scrimmages and different games throughout the day to kind of figure out our skills,” said Goodrum, who was given the green light to play for the men’s open squad. Next up was a week-long training camp a week before the tournament in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that featured intensive scrimmages and more that were followed by the players further getting to know each other off the field at meals and in their shared living quarters. Following the tournament, Goodrum got in some sightseeing while visiting France, Germany and England with his family. “This was just a crazy trip. We went around everywhere,” said Goodrum, noting that he watched the World Cup final in the streets of Segovia, Spain. “That was really fun.”