CRAA Championships Set for This Weekend in Indy
CRAA Championships Set for This Weekend in Indy
The College Rugby Association of America (CRAA) caps off its season (with one exception) this coming weekend at Kuntz Stadium in Indianapolis.
The weekend will be three days of rugby, with men's 15s championship games plus two women's 7s tournaments. Here's what's up:
Women's 7s
The CRAA Women's 7s was a massive hit last year and produced some surprises as many expected Lindenwood and Life to dominate, and they didn't. Instead, Harvard took the championship.
This year, the Women's Premier 7s tournament was supposed to include 12 teams. However, since just a couple of weeks ago Central Washington learned that funding for rugby had been pulled by the University, the Wildcats had to pull out and it was too late to land a replacement. So there will be one pool of three teams and two pools of four. All of these teams are either in women's D1A or NIRA.
Pool A: Harvard, Life, Princeton
Pool B: Lindenwood, Sacred Heart, Army, Navy
Pool C: Davenport, Dartmouth, Long Island, Penn State
This tournament will kick off Friday morning at 10:36AM ET with Life vs Princeton, and will wrap up Saturday evening with the final set for just a few minutes before 5PM.
There will also be a Women's Challenger 7s including teams in CRAA D1 or D2.
Pool 1: Western Washington, Cal, Air Force
Pool 2: Grand Canyon, Cal Poly, San Jose State
Pool 3: Stanford, McKendree, Gonzaga
The tournament kicks off Fridat at 9:30AM ET with McKendree against Gonzaga, and the final will be Saturday at 3:50PM ET.
Men's 15s
The Men's D1AA final four, the Men's D2 final, the final of the Men's D1A Challenger Cup, and the Men's D1A championship final will be held this weekend.
Friday will see Florida Conference champions St. Thomas vs Lonestar champions Sam Houston State playing at 9:30AM.
Heart of America champions Iowa State will play California Conference champions San Diego at Noon. These early games gives the teams the longest possible down time before Sunday's final at 3PM ET. The teams that lose their semifinals will play Sunday at 12:30PM.
Florida Conference D2 champs North Florida plays the California D2 champs USC Sunday at 10AM.
The Challenger Cup will be between Grand Canyon and Mary Washington. That kicks off at 11:30AM on Saturday.
And finally, Saturday night at 7PM we will see Cal vs Life in the D1A Final.
Not This Weekend
Men's D1AA 7s will be held in two weeks in Kansas. That will actually be the final CRAA event of the spring.
All Told ...
All told this is 48 7s games, seven 15s games, and 30 teams covering the weekend. All of the Field 1 games will be on The Rugby Network. Field 2 games will be on CRAA's YouTube Channel.
