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Miami club quidditch team competes in World Cup

Chelsea Naughton, Senior Staff Writer

The release of the latest Harry Potter movie is not the only place Miami University students are going to get their quidditch fix this month.

Miami's club muggle quidditch team sent 14 members to New York City to compete in the fourth annual Quidditch World Cup hosted by the International Quidditch Association (IQA) Nov. 12 to 14.

This was the first international competition for Miami quidditch, an official university club sport founded by Curtis Pittman in fall 2009, according to the Miami Recreational Club Sports website.

Teams from 46 schools in 16 states met in DeWitt Clinton Park in Manhattan for two days of competition, where quidditch teams were welcome.

Miami went 1-2 in its matches Saturday against University of Pittsburgh, University of Minnesota-Morris and University of Vermont.

The team did not make it to the final bracket Sunday despite catching the snitch in two of their games, said sophomore Katie Garn, secretary and beater for the team.

However, losses did not put a damper on the weekend, according to sophomore Carol Bowling, the team's treasurer. Bowling said the IQA provided replicas of the brooms in the Harry Potter books and hired improvisational comedians to announce the games.

The competition marked the first World Cup not held in Middlebury, Vt., where students at the Middlebury College first started playing the game and founded the IQA, according to the competition website.

Being a public event in a big city brought in a large crowd for the event, according to sophomore Katie Graham, event planner for the team.

"The local teams had a huge audience," Graham said. "There was also a draw from the community and kids, along with news."

While muggle quidditch players have a certain sense of humor about themselves, there is a strong sense of competition on the playing field, according to team members.

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"It's really interesting how you think everyone who goes to this would be really nerdy, but they're really intense," Graham said. "(The University of Pittsburgh) was really physical, I remember constantly being tackled down by huge people."

Bowling emphasized the athletic aspect of the team as well.

"All of us that went to New York played other sports in high school," Bowling said. "We have a lot of soccer and lacrosse players and a couple cross country runners."

Garn said the team itself is very eclectic.

"We're a wide variety group of people, we have a lot of athletes, our president is in a fraternity," Garn said. "We're all really different but we all have quidditch in common."

The team practices at 2 p.m. on Sundays in Central Quad. To learn more about the Quidditch World Cup, visit www.internationalquidditch.org.