The Wayne State College men's rugby team has reached National Collegiate Rugby Small College Nationals for the third straight year after their Round of 16 and Quarterfinal victories.
    The Wildcats matched up with a tough, ninth ranked Franciscan side that put up a fight, but was unable to keep pace with WSC. The game started with the Wildcats scoring with a solo effort from Jaden James that he converted himself to give Wayne an early 7-0 lead. A try from Banele Jiyane and conversion by James took the score out to 14-0 and this increased to 17-0 on a penalty kick from James. Franciscan hit back with some hard running from their forwards and the pressure resulted in them scoring an unconverted try to take the game to 17-5. A second try and conversion from James gave the Wildcats a 24-5 lead at the half.

    The second half was a slugfest as each team was unable to break down the others defense. Franciscan kicked a penalty and Wayne answered on a try from Diego Steffani to make the final score Wayne 29 Franciscan 8.

    Sunday's game saw the Wildcats run out comfortable winner over #15 ranked St John's University from Minnesota. St Johns had put in a great performance to narrowly beat # 6 Slippery Rock the previous day, and it was clear that they had used up a lot of energy in that fight. Wayne jumped out to an early lead and while St Johns briefly narrowed the gap the Wildcats were able to pull away to a 53-7 win. Tries came from Jon Mueller (2), Ben Donnelly, Sean Munemo, Max Burke, Asante Rikhotso, Ayabo Mlobeli, and Mpumelelo Mathias. Vuyo Mdlalose took over the kicking duties from the injured Jaden James and finished the day with a penalty kick and five conversion kicks.

    "We went into the weekend with the obvious goal of advancing to the final four, but we also wanted to test our squad depth when it can to playing two games in a weekend," Head Coach Bryn Chivers said. "We took twenty eight players to St Louis and they all got playing time across the two games."

    The Wildcats will match up with the team that beat them in the National Championship a year ago in the Cal Poly Humboldt Lumberjacks. The game between the Lumberjacks and Wildcats is set for Friday, Dec. 8 at 2 P.M. in Houston.