Midwest Championships 2014 Brackets Released

The upcoming Midwest Girls High School rugby championships held at the Moose Rugby Grounds in Elkhart, Indiana features five teams that will be competing at the girls high school national championhips in Pittsfield, Mass. May 17th-18th.

The rankings and matchs for the Championship Division are as follows:
1 DSHA (defending champions)
2 CMHS
3 St Joseph's Academy, Oh (State Champs)
4 Penn HS, Ind (Ind #1)
5 Lakewood, Oh (Oh#2)
6 Plainfield, Ill (State Champs)
7 Warsaw, Ind (Ind #2)
8 Kettle Moraine (Wisc #3)

Saturday Schedule
Championship Bracket
10am DSHA v. Kettle Moraine 1
0am Penn v. Lakewood

11am St. Joseph v. Plainfield
11am Warsaw v. Catholic Memorial

2nd Division Bracket
12pm Lakeview, MI v. DSHA JV
12pm Penn JV v. Berkley, MI
1pm Oak Creek v. Berkley JV
1pm St. Joseph JV v. Livingston, MI

Notes:
-Plainfield, Ill moved up two spots in the rankings after another State Championship. They had to be ranked ahead of KM after defeating them 24-0 in a shortened game two weeks ago.

-Armstrong, MN, their three time state champion, will not compete this year. After losing 56-5 to DSHA and 46-5 to CMHS and suffering some injuries two weeks ago, they dropped out of the competition.

-St Joseph's appears to be a championship contender this year. With 17 seniors, they have essentially the same team as last year, only a year older. They were state champs again and did some traveling this spring, resulting in a nice title win at the DC Ruggerfest against fellow Nationals competitor North Bay, MD in the final. If the first round goes according to the seeds, they could meet CMH in the semis for the third consecutive year. That could be the best or at least most anticipated game of the tournament. Will it be their year to make the final?

-Michigan has elected not to compete in the top division and to treat this as a pre-season event to gain experience in the 2nd division. Credit to them for sending three programs to the tournament. They always participate in large numbers.

-Wisconsin has 5 teams and 4 programs in the competition, so nearly half our programs will be making the trip.

-Nice to see a lot of JV teams in the competition .. that's a good sign and a reflection of rugby's growing popularity