Lawrence, Kans. - Two weeks removed from winning the D1AA 15's National Championship, the St. Thomas University Men's Rugby team won traveled to Kansas fo the CRAA National Championship where the Bobcats swept through the Group Stage before defeating defending champs Western Washington in the Semifinals and Iowa in the Finals for the program's second trophy in three weeks.

Going into this Championship STU only had a 10-day turn around to prepare for a very different type of game. The modern version of the game, 7's is a much faster pace with only 7 players on the field per team, playing 7 minute halves on a full size field. This is a game of speed and tactics. STU were drawn in Group C with Baylor, Wyoming and Nebraska. 

Group Play (Day 1)
Game one against Baylor was almost a perfect performance winning 38-0 at 1130am. 
Game two at 2pm against Wyoming didn't start so well but a composed Bobcats team pulled through to win 26-12 
Game three at 430pm was a breeze against Nebraska winning 36-7 which put STU as the number one seed for the semi finals going into day 2. 

Knockout Phase (Day 2)
That Semi-final was to be played against last years Champions Western Washington University. The other Semi Final was Iowa v Iowa State.

The STU v WWU semi final was the game of the tournament for the neutral Rugby fan. STU struck first through Mathias Adamo to make it 5 -0 with a difficult conversion kick from the sideline by Welton Charumbira taking it to 7-0. That was Adamo's last touch of the tournament as he limped off with a hamstring problem. 
Then things started to fall to pieces a little for the weary looking Bobcats 7-12 at halftime. WWU scored again early in the 2nd half to make the 7-19 with only minutes to go. Realizing the desperate situation STU woke up from the slumber and the boys rallied together with some electric work through the middle from Matubatuba and a powerful try from Owen Phillips then another from Charumbira to even up the scores at 19-19 with seconds left on the clock. The whistle blew for the end of the game and the whole place stood still for a moment in the realization that we have to go to sudden death over time. Rugby 7s goes to sudden death in over time in the knock out stages of competition. First to scores wins. Simple. However, STU had to kick to WWU at the sudden death restart. WWU had scored from the previous restarts. It was their strength. The STU Defense was calm and precise pushing WWU backwards. Looking for a way to force the WWU attack into a mistake. Suddenly a tackle from Dohjan-Wood, a quick poach attempt from Knapton and a slow reaction at the breakdown from WWU attack forced the Washigton winger to arrive a little late and lost his fooingt. PENALTY!!! Again Matubatuba had the penalty tap opportunity and for the 5^th or 6^th time in the tournament. He weaved some magic to release Charumbira in the corner with an acrobatic one handed try, diving into the corner to put STU through to the Final.

The Final was a much more clinical affair against Iowa. A 42-12 win that never seemed to be in doubt from the beginning. 
Two early tries from Matubatuba helped the team relax and get into their stride. Iowa didn't go down easy and kept themselves in it with a well worked try. But Matthew Arteta got on the scoreboard before halftime to make it 21-7 and STU looked in control and cruising. Calm ball handling from all areas of the STU attack allowed Charumbira to score. Iowa bodies start to drop to their knees exhausted and Coach Ronnie Suarez and Diego Loyola put on fresh legs from the bench killing off all hope for Iowa. Sotomayor, Carter, Hough, Ndhlela all making a big impact. Knapton charged through the middle for a score. XVs prop Munashe Ndhlela picked up a loose ball and caused chaos before unleashing Deondre Hough for the final score of the game and the final score of his College Career as the Graduate student wraps up his eligibility in a fairy tale ending.

STU are College Rugby Association of America National 7's Champions in only their third year. 

 You can watch all the CRAA National 7s action here .https://www.youtube.com/live/cQ5cf8L6eu0?si=WRizDj6kHiqEyEhW