The WSC men’s rugby team played in West Des Moines Saturday and came out on top, moving onto the playoffs for the Elite 8 Championship.

WSC played five games and won four, including the championship.

“The games went well. We played very structured and did crisp plays,” rugby coach Darrin Barner said.

The first team the Wildcats faced was SDSU. WSC and SDSU are in the same conference so they have matched up before, and in this game the ‘Cats won by one try, 28-24.

The Wildcats struggled with defense and tackling, which led to their losing to University of Wisconsin Eau Claire. This was WSC’s only loss, 28-14.

“We all wanted to win so badly that the thought of losing that championship game this weekend did not seem possible. We all pushed ourselves this year to make us the best team in the U.S., both individually and as whole,” rugby captain Quinn Rochford said.

Although WSC lost the game, they didn’t let this get in the way of moving on in the competition.

The Wildcats were ready again in the third match against Simpson College. The ‘Cats beat Simpson College earlier this year, and it didn’t hurt to find out that the competition was missing some of their key players.

This game went to the last minute, and Austin Peatrowsky ended up scoring off of a kick return to help WSC win 24-20.

The fourth match against the University of Wisconsin River Falls wasn’t as eventful. River Falls ended up being the worst team at the tournament, and even using subs, WSC won the game 48-0.

In the championship, WSC had a rematch against University of Wisconsin Eau Claire. Earlier games had been cut into two halves of seven minutes, but since this was the championship, this match was cut into halves of ten minutes.

The first half of the game went well. The ‘Cats got three tries and were ahead at 21-5.

In the second half University of Wisconsin Eau Claire gained ground making three tries, but they lost on their last conversion and WSC won 26-24.

WSC had won the rematch, and all of the team’s hard work had paid off.

“It was truly a magical moment for us and we all won’t forget it for the rest of our lives. We finally made it to playoffs for the elite 8/national championships,” Rochford said.

The men’s rugby team is moving on to compete in the playoffs for the Elite 8/National Championships held May 30 and June 1 in Philadelphia. For anyone who wants to see this rugby competition but can’t make it to Philadelphia, they can find it on Sioux City’s Channel 4.

The women’s rugby team will play Sunday in Sioux Falls, competing to qualify for the Elite 8.