Vassar hosts Tri-State 7s Championship
On a cold, wet and overcast Sunday in Poughkeepsie, the Tri-State 7s Rugby Championship was held at the Vassar College Farm. Twenty squads battled in a double elimination style bracket for a chance to compete in the USA Rugby National Championship in Denver, Colorado. Kickoff began at 9 a.m. and a winner was not crowned until after 7 p.m.
Morning showers proved to be an adverse factor for players, as the ball was hard to get a grip on early in the day. But the matches would go on.
Teams were divided into four separate pools with five teams in each group. Marist, William Patterson, Molloy, Drew, SUNY Oneonta, Bard, Monroe, Rensselaer, Hofstra, and even UW-Milwaukee made the trip for a chance to be one of the top two teams in their respective pool. This would give them the opportunity to move into the quarterfinals. By the end of elimination play after 40 matches were played, eight teams remained with a trip to Denver on the line.
After dozens of hours of practice during the week and over seven hours of action on game day, teams had to make one last push. UW-Milwuakee, who made the cross-country trip to compete, made it out of a tough group. They beat Vassar 21–7, Montclair State University 36–5, and SUNY-Oneonta 45–5. The UW-Milwaukee Panthers would defeat Hofstra in the quarterfinals to advance into the semis where they would face Marist, the former champions. In a highly contested defensive matchup, UW-Milwaukee prevailed, 17–12. For Marist co-captain and senior Nicholas Bongiorni, it was a difficult loss in his final career game.
“When we beat William Patterson in the fall to advance to the semifinals, we promised to meet them in the 7’s Championship, where they beat us last year,” he said. “Falling one game short of that promise is tough, especially to a team that isn’t even in our conference.”
Bongiorni added, “UW-Milwaukee plays in a loaded conference where, despite them being a weak team there, they are a very strong team here. So, they reached out to many lower level conferences in an attempt to win and make the trip to nationals. We would’ve liked to continue our recent rivalry with our friends from New Jersey.”
On the other side of the bracket, William Patterson entered the quarterfinals after a clean sweep in pool play. The Pioneers defeated SUNY New Paltz, SUNY New Paltz B-team, Marist College B-team, and Molloy College B-team by a combined score of 184–5. By the time they reached the finals after a cake walk through their competition, they steamrolled UW-Milwaukee and punched another ticket to the USA Rugby National Championship.
The whirlwind of a tournament finally came to a conclusion and Tony Brown, the director of the tournament, expressed his pleasure with the day.
“It’s great to see these young men working hard and competing. We were happy with how everything went today and we wish William Paterson the best of luck going forward.”
