Lindenwood is the reigning Elite 7s champion / Photo: Jackie Finlan
The USA Rugby Women’s Competitions Committee has selected the automatic qualifying tournaments for their D1 and D2 competitions at the 2019 USA Rugby College 7s National Championships. The National Championships will be played at the Kino Sports Complex in Tucson, Arizona, on Memorial Day weekend, May 24-26. Games will be broadcast through FloRugby.
Both the women’s D1 and D2 competitions will feature eight teams. The D1 competition has already found their first qualifier in Iowa State, as they won the Hawkeye 7s Tournament on February 16. The rest of the competition will contain the winners from the following tournaments:
- March 23: Queen’s Cup
- April 13: Pacific Mountain
- April 13: Texas D1 Series
- April 27: Rocky Mountain 7s
The Wolverine 7s and Legacy 7s tournaments may be approved as Automatic Qualifiers, pending their ability to meet team participation criteria.The remaining spots will be allocated to at-large bids.
In the D2 competition, Claremont has already qualified for the tournament by virtue of their victory in the Pacific Desert tournament. They will be joined by the winners of the following tournaments:
- April 6: Rugby Northeast Conference
- April 6: Mid-Atlantic Rugby Conference
- April 6: South Independent Rugby Conference
- April 13: Great Lakes
- April 27: New England Wide
- April 28: Tri-State
- April 28: West Coast
This marks the first time in the history of USA Rugby’s College 7s National Championship that three divisions of women’s play will be represented. Teams from the Elite competition (made up of NIRA and D1 Elite sides) will be announced shortly, pending approval from the Women’s Competitions Committee.