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Day One Brings Surprises in Mens R7CC

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R7CC, Men's College 7s

Day One Brings Surprises in Mens R7CC

Lindenwood's Nic Hardrict IV had a good day. Photo AEG Rugby.
05.14.2022 - Alex Goff
Arizona finished strong. Photo AEG Rugby.
Tennessee kept building and went 3-0. Photo AEG Rugby.

Day One of the men's brackets in the R7CC collegiate sevens championships is in the books and here's a quick rundown of what went on.

The Setting

Kennesaw State University is hosting the event with six fields in action on Saturday (mercifully dropped down to four for Sunday). Fans were able to move around the complex to see teams playing wherever they competed, but the stadium was the center of the action with 25 games held on that surface.

It was very warm and also somewhat humid and taking care of the players—finding water, sports drinks, shade, and getting them into cool areas—was hugely important. Teams that managed those conditions well did well.

Men's Gold

The D1A teams played in Men's Gold in four pools of four. Usually what happens there is the top team is 3-0, the 2nd team 2-1, and so on. But that only happened half the time.

Lindenwood dominated Pool A with Evan Williams playing some inspired rugby and Tyren Al-Jiboori enjoying a big day. The Lions allowed just the one try. Clemson produced a bit of a surprise win over Penn State but the emotion of that win perhaps drained them a bit. Arizona came out as the other quarterfinalist, enjoying several key poaches by EJ Freeman to beat Clemson in the afternoon to end up 2-1.

Saint Mary's and Davenport played a wild one in which Davenport scored with less than a minute to go to lead 21-14. For a while some though it was only 19-14, giving Saint Mary's a chance to win it at the death. They did score, working some smart contact work and careful offloads to go in under the posts. The kick tied it and both the Panthers and the Gaels ended up 1-0-1 with a game to go. Davenport beat Santa Clara, and then Saint Mary's held off a tough Navy side. Saint Mary's took the pool on the tiebreaker.

Central Washington started a bit flat against Texas A&M and looked shaky against a difficult Ohio State side in a 14-14 tie. UCLA, despite being without Lucas Lacamp, who is with the USA 7s team.

But while the Bruins seemed set to go 3-0, Central burst through for a key late try and beat them 19-12 to take Pool C. Ohio State just missed out on a quarterfinal spot.

In Pool D there were surprises, too. Life University did well enough, although sometimes the tries seemed hard to come by. They did hold opponents to only two. But Indiana, which was touted in these pages as a contender, saw Cal Poly score a late one and the Mustangs pipped the Hoosiers. Cal Poly went on to hammer Air Force 36-5 to book a quarterfinals spot.

Men's Red

UC Santa Cruz edged past Nebraska in their opening game, and that proved to be the least-close game they played. The Banana Slugs won their next two by two points each, going 3-0 by razor-thin margins. 

But they battled. The only team in the competition from a DIII (NCAA) school, the Slugs played tenacious defense to advance.

Also in Pool A, Nebraska looked in trouble, having lost that game and looking vulnerable against Sam Houston State. But they held off Long Beach State to finish 2-1 and get to the quarterfinals.

In Pool B, San Diego got by Harvard by a point, 15-14, in one of the last games of the day. The result earned USD a 3-0 record, and crushed Harvard hopes of making it to the top eight. That honor, instead, went to Iowa State.

Pool C was Tennessee's. They opened up on fire before seeing Oregon State test them in a desultory second half. 

Captain Josh Shetler was happier in the next game as a strong second half saw the Vols past Stanford by three. Using some shifty runners and a lot of power, Tennessee finished it off with a 2-0 shutout of Florida. They will be a handful.

South Carolina will be also. The Gamecocks showcased a very elusive running style and they stayed out of contact and kept the ball moving. It worked marvelously and USC went 3-0 as well.

Men Blue

Memphis lost an early one to Northern Colorado but won their next two to go 2-1. USC went from strength to strength, edging Furman and then blasting by Valdosta State and Northern Colorado. Furman also shook off an early loss to go 2-1. Those three look in form as we go to Sunday.

R7CC, Men's College 7s