Around The Nation in D1A: Rocky Mountain, Midwest, Big 10, Rugby East, and More

10.26.2026College Men

GCU vs CSULB 2026. Photo J. Dalton Photography.

GCU vs Cal State Long Beach. Photo J. Dalton Photgraphy.

Author: Alex Goff

It was a very busy weekend in D1A rugby and we're seeing some improvement steps among a number of teams.

Rocky Mountain

BYU won comfortably over rivals Utah, with Victory Mataele logging 26 points thanks to two tries and eight conversions. Will Pugmire also scored two times.

It was a good victory for the Cougars and they are now 3-0 as they look ahead to Utah Valley, Western Washington, and Utah State to wrap up the fall. This is a good launching pad for the spring for BYU and they will almost certainly win the Rocky Mountain. But bringing in WWU is part of a desire to shake things up and certainly the Cougars will face some more challenging games ahead.

Right now, three wins of 57-17, 55-7, and 61-10 looks pretty consistent. Only Air Force scored more than 10 points against them.

Speaking of Air Force, they produced an excellent showing this week with a 61-5 defeat of Utah Valley. Head Coach John Cullen said he peeled off a lot from the team's game plan and simplified much of it. He has athletic and hardworking players, and decided to work off that.

"We stepped up big-time in work rate, carries, and tackle count," said Cullen.

Air Force pulled off a big win this week. Noonan Sloan Photography.

The biggest area of improvement, aside from work rate, has been set piece and their maul," said Cullen. Much of all of that is led by a really strong back row of Latrycen Foy, Cooper Frietag, and Jackson Warner.

BYU leads the conference with a 3-0 record while Colorado is 2-1. Air Force is now 1-1, withtheir loss to BYU.

Next up, Air Force takes on Colorado while UVU takes on BYU

Midwest

Arkansas State won 36-12 over a tenacious McKendree side with Tanyaradzwa Chiwara scoring two tries and Jack Rankin also bagging a brace.

It's still early in this conference but we will see ASU taking on Ohio State next week. Ohio State has a competitive loss to Lindenwood on their conference slate. The Buckeyes are playing in two conferences, with the other being the Big Ten.

Big Ten

Ohio State and Indiana won big this week. As a result these two will face off in the final Nov. 7 at Kuntz Stadium in Indianapolis.

These two have met before, with Ohio State winning 42-25 a little over a week ago.

The Hoosiers made a couple of shifts in their lineup and moved Joey Reis from fullback to inside center.

For Ohio State, they got revenge for a bit of an upset loss from last year, beating Michigan 45-14.

"It was a great team win against a team that got one over on us last year," said Head Coach Peter Malcolm. "We weathered the storm in the first half when we struggled to string possessions together."

But in the second half the Buckeyes' strong kicking game and their maul took over.

Rugby East

Mary Washington held off an improving Southern Virginia side to improve to 2-2 in-conference. Penn State beat Mount St. Mary's 28-15.

Those results have set up a nice matchup between the two. Next week Penn State visits Navy and Mary Washington is at Army. Bluntly put, the service academies are favored in those games. If that prediction holds, the two teams will be battling a week later to see who gets to be .500. Most likely that can be the difference between a cup playoff spot or a Challenger Cup spot.

Non-Conference

We reported on Navy's two-point win over Saint Mary's.

Navy Edges Saint Mary's in Barnburner

But there were other crossover games. Grand Canyon beat Long Beach State 26-12 to win their second D1A game. The Lopes had already defeated Colorado.

"We have a young team, but we've always been young," said GCU Head Coach Sean O'Leary. "I saw in training, thought, that there's some real talent in this team."

Frenchman Camille Becker showed up last year and enjoyed his time. He was so active on his social media talking about his experience that two more Frenchmen have come to Phoenix.

Coming off the Colorado game O'Leary said the team did well but "we made a lot of Mickey Mouse mistakes. We had a bit of niggle in the game and I think we fell to that level. But I was really happy with our physicality and how we really competed."

It was, said O'Leary, the first time he'd seen his team play very physical without losing their composure.

"I feel good about our leadership and they have helped the new and young players finding their comfort zone," said O'Leary.

And another Arizona team was in action. Arizona beat San Diego State 57-17. Wing Ethan Heim scored three tries to pace the Wildcats.

"Overall a great day for both of our sides against a well-coached, physical SDSU group," said Arizona DOR Duffy. "We are thankful to them for hosting us and the great matches today. Some new faces in the mix and I'm thrilled to see guys like Braedon Butte and PJ Enegren get quality minutes and really contribute. Jonny Rix is another who's been working hard in the 2s and is starting to break through at scrum half. But the overall composure of guys like Saxon Gerstl really helped put us into great attacking platforms, and we were able to convert a lot of those into points. Work to be done, but we're happy with the steps forward that everyone took this week."

Next up for these teams, Navy plays Penn State, as we said, while GCU will play the Scottsdale Rugby Club and after that San Diego State. Arizona plays Lindenwood in two weeks. Long Beach State plays Mira Costa College and Santa Clara in November.