United World Rugby Release
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – May 3, 2019 – The nation’s top 16 women’s college rugby 7s teams are set to compete in the 2019 Penn Mutual Collegiate Rugby Championships, at Talen Energy Stadium in suburban Philadelphia during the weekend of Friday, May 31st through Sunday, June 2nd.
For the first time, the women’s championship field will be competing for the A. Jon Prusmack Cup. Prusmack, who passed away in December 2018, was an innovative visionary who, for more than 50 years, devoted his life to expand rugby in the United States. He established the Penn Mutual Collegiate Rugby Championship in 2010 which was the first-ever college 7s championship in the United States.
This year’s 16-team women’s field features defending champion Lindenwood University, which won the championship match last June over Penn State, 21-12, to capture their first women’s title. Penn State also returns this year, and is joined by the women’s sides from Army, Bloomsburg, Delaware, Drexel, Kutztown, Life, Navy, Northeastern, Notre Dame, Queens University, Saint Joseph’s, Temple, Virginia Tech as well as the National Small College Rugby Organization Selects Squad.
The 2019 Penn Mutual Collegiate Rugby Championship will mark the ninth consecutive year that the event has been held in Philadelphia and at Talen Energy Stadium, bringing national and International attention to the region. This year’s event will mark the second year that the competition will be televised live by the ESPN family of networks with the most television and digital coverage in the tournament’s history. The weekend-long rugby event is one of the largest gatherings of collegiate and high school rugby teams in the world.
The annual event also features the 24-team men’s championship field competing for the Pete Dawkins Trophy, and the Freedom Cup Championship featuring a six-team men’s field vying for a spot in next year’s main bracket. Also featured are the National Small College Rugby Organization (NSCRO) national championship competition as well as a national high school tournament with both boys’ and girls’ teams.
