Babson College won the Frostbite 7s NCR qualifier over the weekend, beating some D1 teams in the process.

The tournament featured an NCR CRC 7s automatic qualifier that ran over two days, plus a men's bracket on Day One and a women's bracket on Day Two.

In the men's bracket, Susquehana beat Frostburg State, Franklin & Marshall, Millersville, and Loyola, all by shutouts, to take their division. Rutgers beat Colgate, lost to Scranton, and then beat Niagara to make their division final against Rowan, winning that game 12-7. And finally Kutztown's 2nd team beat Bucknell, Pitt, and West Chester, all by shutouts (they also lost to RIT but had already secured a place in their division final) to win their division.

Among the women, there were two divisions. Niagara beat Kutztown, Delaware, and IUP by wide margins before edging St. Bonaventure in a tight one 19-17. AIC beat Bonnies, Pitt, and Shippensburg in convincing fashion to win their division.

So that leaves us with the NCR Qualifier.

Kutztown, Fordham, Babson, AIC, Christendom, West Virginia, Delaware, and Nazareth all suited up for that. Several of the games were close, with four of the Day One matchups (12 in all) decided by a try or less. Babson edged Christendom in an opening match of small college teams; the Beavers took it 12-7. That was also the score for Kutztown's opening game over Fordham. AIC looked solid against WVU to the tune of 33-0 but were shut out by Kutztown two hours later. Babson shut out Delaware 22-0 and capped off their day with a 7-0 win over Nazareth.

By then Kutztown was firing nicely, blasting West Virginia 66-0.

All of those games succeeded in seeding all eight teams in the knockout rounds on Sunday. The quarterfinals were predictably lopsided, with AIC beating Delaware 47-0, Fordham beating Christendom 26-5 in the closest QF, Kutztown shutting out Nazareth 29-0, and Babson taking care of WVU 55-0.

In the semis, AIC and Kutztown played a bit of a barnburner, with the Yellowjackets edging the Bears 14-12. Babson had the run of play against Fordham 28-0. In a tightly-contested final, Babson held off AIC 14-7 to win it all. 

"Going into it our expectation was to use [this tournament] as a bellwether given the only opposition we’ve had was a scrimmage session with Northeastern," said Babson Head Coach Carrick Pell. "Plus, it was a great opportunity to have six matches worth of feedback to take with us to Puerto Rico next week to hone in on what we did well and correct what we did poorly. The Knightmare Rugby Club & Bryan Hynes delivered with a spectacular event.  Big kudos to their effort on the soggy Saturday and sunny Sunday."

As the tournament went on it was clear Babson was hitting their stride.

"I couldn’t be more proud of the 16 young men we traveled with, even though a couple didn’t game time, they were outstanding teammates," said Pell, who also pointed out that they gave up just two tries in the entire tournament. "The defensive effort was outstanding.  We need to improve on one-up tackling to ground, back ourselves when applying defensive pressure, and increase our speed to feet. All of those things will come as we improve our fitness and transition our training sessions from basketball courts to grass."