Indiana continued its domination of the Big Ten, taking the program’s second conference title in as many years.

Since the beginning of last fall, Indiana has gone 15-0 in the Big Ten, scoring 957 points (63.8 per game) and allowing only 113. But it’s even more than that. Last year, Indiana had to work for it to get by Wisconsin 20-13, and the conference final against Ohio State was 34-14. This year, Indiana beat Wisconsin 39-17, and Ohio State 72-19, basically tripling the winning margin over each team.

That final against Ohio State was pretty impressive, and club president Jacob Garwood said it was the team’s best of the fall.

“We played pretty well against Wisconsin [earlier in the season] and had a good tempo but we weren’t in sync,” said Garwood. “This Saturday the whole team played well. We were able to play together, hit the rucks, and get clean ball. We always have to make sure we’re moving the ball. We’re unselfish. We’ve got so many good players, it doesn’t matter who scored the try - we just want to get it into the zone.”

Garwood said that Ohio State was a very good team, but Indiana just put it all together. In addition, the final was played at the Moose Rugby Grounds in Elkhart, Ind., the home field of the Penn High School team. Garwood, and several other IU players, played rugby at Penn, and he said playing on that field was a boost.

“We played with intensity and focus,” said Garwood. “And it was sort of a homecoming for a lot of us. To have my old high school coaches watching us play was a special experience. I like to think we made them really proud.”

So now IU is done for the fall. They will rest up for a week or so and then hit the gym and the weight room to prepare for a spring that will include the DIA playoffs. Garwood said they’ve learned a lot from their experience last year (including losing to Lindenwood in the quarterfinals).

“We’re in a good position for preparing for the spring,” said Garwood “We remember losing to Lindenwood and we hated that feeling.”