Kutztown Rugby

The Kutztown University Rugby Club will travel to Las Vegas on Wednesday, February 8, 2012. This will be the third consecutive year that the Golden Bears have appeared in the country’s largest invitational rugby tournament. During their initial appearance in 2010, they sent their first and second fifteen, to compete with Utah Valley State University and Claremont Colleges. The Bears returned home undefeated. Last year, the club sent their sevens team and competed in a field of twenty eight colleges. The Golden Bears advanced to the Finals but were upended by Central Washington University. This year’s sevens competition has grown to a field of thirty one schools. 

Kutztown comes into this event, fresh off a December, 2011 Final Four finish, in the USA National Sevens Championship, held in College Station, Texas. The Bears lost in the semi-finals, to none other than, Central Washington, 19-17. Life University (Marietta,  Georgia ) defeated Central Washington in overtime, to capture  the inaugural 2011 National Collegiate Sevens Championship.

The teams have recently been notified of their Las Vegas pool play competition. Kutztown has been placed in “Conference One” and seeded first in their bracket. The other first place bracket seeds of “Conference One” are, Miami University, San Diego State and Life University. The Golden Bears, if given the opportunity, will have to rise to the challenge of defeating the 2011 National Champions, (Life University) if they are to advance to the Finals. 

The 2012 Las Vegas Invitational Collegiate Champion will advance to the NBC national collegiate invitational television event, known as the Collegiate Rugby Championship (CRC). The CRC is a sixteen team invitational tournament with only one qualifying team on the billboard. 

The Las Vegas Invitational being the only qualifying venue for that event. The CRC is held in Philadelphia PPL Park, on June 2-3, 2012.

2012 LAS VEGAS COLLEGIATE INVITATIONAL SEVENS TOURNAMENT  

CONFERENCE ONE 

A   BRACKET

Life University

St. Joe’s University

Claremont Colleges

University of Buffalo

B   BRACKET

Kutztown University

University of Missouri

Creighton University

University of San Francisco

C   BRACKET

University of Miami

Air Force Academy

University of Texas

University of Pittsburgh

D  BRACKET

San Diego State University

Western Washington University

New Mexico State University

Denver University

CONFERENCE TWO

A  BRACKET

Central Washington University

Yale University

Indiana University

Weber State University

B  BRACKET

University of Utah

Davenport University 

Southern Illinois University

Regis University

C  BRACKET

Cal Poly University

University of Georgia

Stanford University

Albany University

D  BRACKET 

Stony Brook University

UCLA

Brown University

Longwood University