Missouri S&T has won the 2020 National Collegiate Rugby championship. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the traditional season was replaced with a season of fitness challenges and social media competitions.
The National Collegiate Rugby Organization recently ended its season after a five-week series of weekly tasks for individual teams. The season included sets of exercises the team had to complete, record and submit. Social media challenges had players reflect on what rugby had taught them, and how it helped during social distancing, along with posts about practice tasks.
Each team across the nation had the same tasks each week. Missouri S&T’s team ended the season in first place, with 52 points total.
“Being the first virtual season, it definitely wasn’t a smooth start,” says team vice president Mitchell Jarosinski, a senior in civil engineering from Medinah, Illinois. “But once we got started, we jumped to the front of the pack right away. The second week, we finished first in points and S&T team member Logan Gallagher was selected as the league’s MVP for that week.”
Jarosinski also says that the team did not struggle to adjust to the new format for the 2020 season – it just meant less travel for the team.
“Motivation for practice this virtual season was never much of a problem,” says Jarosinski. “In a typical season, some weeks everyone will have lots of tests and participation will slow down, but our team is very good at motivating themselves. Our coach Daniel Boyd did a very good job of blending the virtual season’s workouts with our own to make practice something everyone looks forward to going to each day.”
For more information about National Collegiate Rugby or the 2020 virtual season, visit ncr.rugby.
About Missouri University of Science and Technology
Founded in 1870 as the University of Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy, Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T) is a STEM-focused research university of 7,600 students and part of the four-campus University of Missouri System. Located in Rolla, Missouri, Missouri S&T offers 99 different degree programs in 40 areas of study, including engineering, the sciences, business and information technology, education, the humanities, and the liberal arts. Missouri S&T is known globally and is highly ranked for providing a high return on tuition investment, exceptional career opportunities for graduates, and an emphasis on applied, hands-on learning through student design teams and cooperative education and internship opportunities. For more information about Missouri S&T, visit www.mst.edu.
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