Aggies Climb to #9 in National Rankings

Center Jan Young against Life

The Aggies make their first-ever appearance in Rugby Magazine's Collegiate 7s top ten rankings.  After being ranked as high as 11, the Aggies dropped to 12 last week (despite not losing).  After their third-straight championship win Texas A&M climbed to 9.  While the Aggies are excited about their current ranking, they understand that staying there is difficult and they will have to maintain their focus until nationals.

 

National 7s Rankings
Team		Rank
Life University		1
Cal		2
St. Mary's		3
Central Washington		4
Air Force		5
BYU		6
Arkansas State		7
SD State		8
Texas A&M		9
Dartmouth		10

Leading Scorers ARC South 7s

J.D. Smiley breaking a tackle

The Aggies scored 152 points this weekend in four matches, averaging 38 points per match.  Captain Conor Mills was the leading scorer with 62 points on the weekend, followed by J.D. Smiley and Matt Theodore with 20 points apiece. 

Player	Tries	Conv.	Assists	Total Points
Conor Mills	6	16	7	62
J.D. Smiley	4	0	0	20
Matt Theodore	4	0	1	20
Lukas Jacobson	3	0	1	15
Andres Diaz	2	0	0	10
Aaron Durke	2	0	0	10
Chris Frazier	2	0	1	10
Tyler Gessner	1	0	1	5

Aggies Win Third 7s Tournament in a Row!

The Aggies won both the varsity and JV divisions of the Allied Rugby Conference South 7s tournament this past weekend in Austin, Texas.  This is the second tournament in a row the Aggies have won both divisions.  It is also the third tournament championship for varsity this sevens season.  Despite two lineup changes (based on injury), the Aggies managed to play extremely good rugby over the weekend, with the new players fitting in seamlessly.

 

J.D. Smiley was moved into the varsity lineup after his fantastic performance at the SEC.  He then stepped into the starting lineup for the injured Jan Young.  He continued to impress, scoring multiple tries during the tournament - with three in his first match.  Matt Theodore, a Varsity regular, started at wing for the injured Brian Guillen.  He also had a fanastic tournament, scoring four tries, and making a major impact on defense. 

 

Conor Mills on the attack

Captain Conor Mills led the way for the varsity with a brilliant performance, scoring six tries and adding seven assists.  He led all tournament scorers with 62 points.  His playmaking skills were on display with a number of tries being scored off his spectacular offloads.  Andres Diaz and Chris Frazier also had huge tournaments.  Diaz dominated the breakdown and turned the opposition's ball over numerous times, which led to a number of Aggie tries.  Frazier was all over the field both offensively and defensively, making a number of long runs.  Once again the scoring was very balanced among the Aggies and their chemistry as a unit was clearly evident throughout the day.  The key as always was the stingy brand of defense played by Texas A&M.  Aaron Durke stood out especially, leading the team in tackles in two of the games.

 

The Aggies won both of their Pool A matches.  They beat Sam Houston State 38-0 in the opening match and Baylor 31-5 in the second game.  The Aggies crushed UT in a semi-final 36-5.  A&M finished the day with a resounding 45-12 victory over Oklahoma in the championship match.  The Aggies averaged 37.5 points per match (scoring 150 total points) and gave up an average of 5.5 points per match.  The Aggies had eight players score tries during the tournament with seven scoring multiple tries on the day.

 

The JV had another outstanding tournament defeating UT 17-10 in the opening match and OU 21-7 in their other pool match.  They went on to beat Sam Houston State 24-7 in the semi-final and annihilated OU 57-0 in the championship.  The JV squad may have been the second best squad at the tournament this weekend. 

 

 

Photo Links

Texas A&M Rugby photographer Sonya Mills has provided links to this year's alumni match, the SEC Championships, and last year's Life University match.  The links are provided below:

Alumni Match: http://photobucket.com/TAMURFCA2012AlumniMatch

SEC 7s Championship Tournament: http://photobucket.com/TAMURFCSEC7s2012Championship

TAMU vs. Life: http://photobucket.com/TAMURFCvLife-040712

Mudfish Scholarship Award

Krippner and Catfish Scholarship winner Cimino

The annual Mudfish Scholarship was presented at Saturday's alumni match.  The Mudfish Scholarship is a $1,000 award that was created by Old Maroon members Scot "Lit'l Scot" Krippner and Stuart Borlase.  This award helps student-athletes with the costs associated with Texas A&M, and helps provide out-of-state recipients with in-state tuition.  This year's scholarship was awarded to freshman Sam Cimino, who played his high school rugby at Sacramento Jesuit High School in California.  We congratulate Sam on winning the Mudfish Scholarship and thank our amazing donors for all they are doing to help the program and our student-athletes!

Aggies Name ARC Squad

The Aggies announced their squad for this weekend's ARC 7s event to be held in Austin, TX.  There were a couple of changes from the team that won the SEC 7s Championship.  ARC events only allow 12-man rosters, rather than the fifteen for the SEC event, so some hard choices had to be made.  These choices were made more difficult due to the fact that A&M has a number of fantastic young players who are currently in very good form. 

 

J.D. Smiley scores against Alabama

Jan Young was injured in Alabama and will be out of commission until the spring.  He is replaced in the lineup by J.D. Smiley, who had a five try performance with the JV squad at the SEC's.  Forward Josh Fojtik joins the varsity lineup for the first-time this season after demonstrating great form in previous tournaments.

 

The Aggies will be in Pool A, along with Baylor and Sam Houston State.  Pool B consists of UT, Texas Tech, and OU.  Texas A&M will also field a JV squad this weekend, which will consist of some of the Aggie's most exciting young players.  The tournament is located at Burr Field in Austin, with first kickoff at 10:20.

 

Varsity Lineup

Prop - J.D. Smiley

Hooker - Andres Diaz

Prop - Chris Frazier

SH - Aaron Durke

FH - Lukas Jacobson

C - Conor Mills (C)

W - Brian Guillen

R - Tyler Gessner

R - Raymond Hawkins

R - Andrew McMath

R - Josh Fojtik

R - Matthew Theodore

Alumni Match

The Aggies played the annual alumni match on Saturday.  There was a great turnout by the alumni, who came out on top in the match and provided the younger Aggies with a demonstration into the finer arts of the breakdown throughout the game.   There were a number of prominent Old Maroon present for the game, and it is always great for current Aggie players to connect with alumni in order to keep traditions alive and maintain bonds.  In addition, the Old Maroon were assisted by the incomparable Justin Boyd, a USA Men's 7s and 15s star, who currently plays for Frisco.  Boyd managed a couple of exciting tries for the fans during the match and looks to be fully recovered from his knee injury. 

 

The Aggies fielded a young and relatively inexperienced side for the match.  "We felt that the alumni match was a great opportunity for our younger guys to see some experienced opposition who we knew would be hard physically," said head coach Brett Mills.  A number of these players had standout games.  Tighthead Francisco Brito was brilliant throughout the day and looks to have earned himself a starting position with the varsity team.  Andrew McMath, Matt Theodore, Danny Amsler, Andrew Stanley, Dylan Starks, and Matt Krath all played impressively during their stints on the field.

 

Alumni and Aggies at Reunion Weekend

"Alumni weekend is always a great experience, as we get to see familar faces and have some fun playing a bit of rugby," commented director of rugby Craig Coates.  "This is a great event each year and we look forward to have our alumni back on campus next year for another go."  Congratulations go out to the alumni for their win - wait till next year!!