Coming off back to back seasons of putting teams in the ACR 15s final, the Heart of America has seen some turnover that has lead to a wide open competition so far.
In the South, Kansas and Mizzou are currently tied at the top of the table through two matches. ACR finalists in 2022 Kansas, now led by Seth Akpovona, who took over for club legend Andy Stewart, and captain Trevor Lister, back from a semester in New Zealand, tested themselves early with matches against Oklahoma, Northern Iowa, and Colorado State. They went 2-0-1 in those warmups and followed that with defeats of Kansas State and Oklahoma to start 2-0 with bonus points in both games.
Mizzou, led by longtime coach Don Corwin, is building off a strong spring which saw them perform well in 7s. The Tigers beat Oklahoma State and this last weekend took down Arkansas, a team that had made the conference semis the past two seasons, by the score of 69-17.
Kansas State, led by second-season coach Ryley Menhuesen and scrumhalf Quinn Tilley opened the season by blanking Arkansas 34-0 and then traveled to Lawrence to take on the Jayhawks. The Wildcats eventually fell 12-34 against the Jayhawks but a boom of athletes has the needle moving in the right direction for the Wildcats as they look to move into a semifinal spot when they take on Mizzou this weekend.
Arkansas and Oklahoma State will look to play spoiler as both teams work to rebuild their rosters after graduations have made their rosters very young.
In the North, Iowa State, led by coach Anthony Frein in his 7th season, is on top of the North Standings. After graduating 11 of 15 starters from last season decided to test themselves against Iowa Central and Southern Nazarene but also played Wisconsin with their reserves and 2nd side before starting conference play. This allowed the Cyclones to rapidly integrate new pieces around captains Alex Geisert and Drew Guinn, but they need to continue to rebuild the depth needed to compete.
The Cyclones beat Iowa 50-3 in their conference opener and Nebraska 64-12 to get the 2-0 with bonus points in both. The Cyclones again will test their depth traveling to Wayne State for another 2nd side match against a quality opponent.
