Life University Athletics

METAIRIE, La. --- The Life University men's rugby sevens squad put on display top shelf sevens rugby throughout the Memorial Day weekend in the CRC May Madness 7's Tournament down in the New Orleans heat, making a dominant run to the national championship game before losing to Lindenwood at The Shrine on Airline.
 
This year's CRC 7's men's tournament featured a 28-team field of some of the best collegiate 7's teams in the nation. The CRC's committee divided the bracket into four groupings with the one seeds being Life U, Lindenwood, Army, and Davenport. All of the top seeded teams did their job and advanced to the semifinals, the Running Eagles and Lindenwood meeting in the title match where the Lions took the championship 24-14.
 
Receiving a bye on the first day, the men's journey to the title game started in the second round on day two of the tournament, facing five seed Loyola (Md.) as the team won 50-0. Sunday afternoon in the quarterfinals the team met the two seed Western Michigan where the team again breezed to the victory, 59-0. In both day two victories, the men showed crisp play while seemingly able to dot down a try from any point on the field. The team took advantage of their athletic edge on the kicks to quickly establish dominance in the games as they were able to quickly go back on the attack following scores.
 
The last day of CRCs saw the men kick the semifinals off against fellow top seed Army. Relying on great vision, passing, and excellent footwork the men quickly found themselves up 17-0 in the first half. Army tried to make things interesting, but Life U put them away for the 36-17 win to advance to the title game. The Running Eagles struck first in the championship game, taking a 7-0 lead but a pair of Lindenwood tries saw the men trailing 10-7 at the break. The Running Eagles never managed to get back into form in the second half, George Phelan recording a try as time expired for the final, a 24-14 loss.
 
When asked about the weekend, Head Men's Rugby Coach, Colton Cariaga expressed his gratitude for the team and supporters, "I am really grateful for the key seniors that led us in their last competition for Life, for our staff of Zac Mizell, Lucas Baistrocchi, Sam Malette, and Adrian Escobedo, and for the families that supported us whether near or far. As a program, we've learned a lot from our experiences this year and will continue to. At the end of the day, we generally set our sights on competing for championships and we did that this weekend." Cariaga finished stating, "The men played, at times, some excellent rugby and we will want to continue to build on that."
 
With the end of CRCs, the men's rugby 2020-21 season comes to a close, the team taking a well-deserved breath before looking towards next season.