The University of Wisconsin Badgers may have started their USA Rugby College 7s Championships with a heartbreaking loss, but they finished in style, putting Central Florida to the sword 29-7 to win the Bowl Final.

The Badgers lost their opener on Saturday 19-17 to Bowling Green on a late try. They rebounded with a 24-19 victory over a speedy Mississippi State, but were upended 22-14 by AIC to put them in the Bowl Quarterfinals.

It was there that the Badgers shone, as they beat 2-1 teams Cal Poly (17-5) and West Virginia (17-5) to make the final.

And in the final, paced by some snappy play by Dane Fleck and Hunter Crass, they outpaced UCF with better ball movement and a supremely organized defense.

“That first loss was one of those last-minute losses that you never like, but we spoke to the guys about our defense, which was improving,” said 7s Coach Scott Adlington.

It’s not a surprise that it took Wisconsin a while to get into it because they missed most of the Big Ten 7s Series, as they were in the DIA playoffs, and only made it to the championship BTU event, where they finished 2nd. 

“I think the style of 7s we’re playing is what we wanted to play,” said Adlington. “I think what we lacked was coming up against strong opposition consistently. While we got some games in and it was good to get a hit-out, we didn’t get the physicality we needed to prepare us for this level of competition. We did what we could when we could do it.”

Wisconsin said they wanted to get the defense better - organizing better and tackling better.

“We wanted to cut down on their space and their opportunities,” said Adlington.

In the Bowl Final their defense was exceptional, as the Badgers bottled up UCF’s big runners and they patiently waited for their shots. Even falling behind 7-0, they didn’t seem worried, and some smart team play put Dane Fleck away, and then Ben Lehrmann, Crass, and Matoko Noudehou capped it off.

Fleck took a whack on the head against AIC and went to the hospital and got six staples in his head.

“You’ve got to be resilient in these tournaments, and especially on the second day,” said Fleck. “We’ve a very young team, we have a lot of freshen and sophomores and so we know it’s only going to get better for us.”

- Additional reporting Owen Goff