Photo: Alex Ho (hoiho.net)
Below is a ranking of the DI Elite, NIRA and Division I teams that featured in the top-three spring 7s competitions: USA Rugby (USAR) Elite 7s National Championship, USAR Open 7s National Championship and CRC 7s. Only single-school teams were considered.
Highest value was placed on the USAR Elite 7s, which really did bring the top-eight teams (that value and play 7s) together in one competition. There weren’t any massive blowouts (as seen elsewhere), and another good tournament could probably come out of the bottom half of the DI Elite 7s and the top-three teams from the Open 7s. That said, the DI Elite 7s teams get preference because that competition did not feature any DII teams (like the Open and CRC 7s). So while it might seem strange to rank a team that finished 1-4 above one that finished 5-0, the order reflects the different natures and levels of the competition.
1. Lindenwood University – Unquestionably the top 7s team this year, the Lions hold the USA Rugby College 7s National Championship and CRC 7s titles. To boot, Lindenwood is also the DI Elite 15s National Championship
2. Life University – Finished third at both USA Rugby and CRC 7s, but consistently gave Lindenwood its best games. Life lost in the semifinal rounds at both tournaments: 15-14 on the last play of the game, and 17-14 when a Kaitlyn Broughton dive-over try was deemed not-grounded. Great rivalry.
3. Penn State – Finished runner-up at both major 7s tournaments and was the only team to beat Lindenwood this spring (17-12 during pool play of USAR 7s). But both of the finals were decided by larger margins – 20-0 in the USAR 7s final and 21-12 in the CRC 7s final.
4. Central Washington – The Wildcats were the wild card at USAR 7s. The team hadn’t played much competition in the spring but its lineup was very familiar and adept at 7s. CWU was in the pool of death with Lindenwood (17-7 L), Penn State (14-14 D) and Dartmouth (29-17 L), and was relegated to the Plate, which it won convincingly.
5. Army West Point – The Black Knights finished 2-3 and fourth overall at USAR 7s, dropping two games to Life (20-5, 22-21) and a 36-14 semifinal match to Penn State
6. Davenport – Finished 2-3 at USAR 7s, defeating Harvard 24-19 and Dartmouth 27-10
7. Harvard – Finished 1-4 at USAR 7s, defeating Dartmouth 26-24 on day two
8. Dartmouth – The Big Green lost a little momentum when Lilly Durbin was ruled out for injury but then a solid win over Central Washington restored some confidence. But that was the only victory at the USAR Elite 7s weekend, and Dartmouth finished 1-4 and eighth overall.
9. Air Force – Won USAR’s Open 7s National Championship and played two great matches against DI Spring 15s champion Chico State
Photo: Alex Ho (hoiho.net)
10. Chico State – By far Air Force’s best competition, finishing second overall after two single-digit decisions: 19-14 and 20-17 in the final
11. Princeton – Finished third at USAR Open 7s, going 4-1, and losing 28-7 to Chico State in the semifinals
12. Notre Dame – There was a pretty decent gap between the CRC 7s’ top four teams and the rest of the field, but the Fighting Irish finished fifth overall (4-2) and ended the tournament with two solid wins over Boston and Navy.
13. Navy – Went 3-3 and finished sixth at CRCs. Dropped a 26-7 contest to Notre Dame in the fifth-place match
14. Virginia Tech – Finished 7th at CRCs. Was a top contender for the Plate but a 19-12 loss to Navy derailed that path. Hokies finished with a 29-10 win over Boston
15. We think a Pacific Mountain or Rocky Mountain team would have been on this list had the USA Rugby College 7s National Championship been done right. Several teams from the aforementioned leagues were gunning for at-large berths, which seemed possible when the competition originally rolled out DI and DII brackets. But when the competition warped into the DI Elite and Open, the latter saw four DI and four DII teams comprise that bracket. It was a sloppy compromise that essentially turned into two four-team tournaments, with the DI teams finishing 1-4 and the DII teams finishing 5-8.