Lindenwood-Belleville’s month hasn’t been the best, but it has ended on a very high note, with the team’s first national title.

The Lynx rolled through the Men’s D1AA bracket at the USA Rugby Collegiate 7s Championships, going 6-0, and beating a very tough Western Michigan team 1905 in the final.

Sparked by the power running of Tinashe Muchina—one of the more imposing physical specimens in the competition—and with shifty Jake Jacobsen scampering in for tries, the Lynx unleashed a varied, and unified, attack all weekend.

Much of this performance was fueled by a strong desire to bring a championship back to Illinois, but it was also fueled by the sad news the school received earlier this month: Lindenwood-Belleville would be closing its undergraduate programs and students would be transferring to Lindenwood University in St. Charles, MO.

The rugby team, as with everything else, will cease at the end of the 2019-2020 season.

“The guys came back from finals week, we had a practice, and then I went to a staff meeting,” said head coach Joe Lippert. “That’s what I found out, and at the same time the players found out through an email. They got that bomb dropped on them and then we had practice in the afternoon. All I said to them was, there are a few things within our control right now, so let’s make sure we do those things right.”

And they did. Lippert decided not to install any new wrinkles in the final weeks, concentrating instead on having the team perfect what it knew. He also wanted to address the mental side of the game.

“I think this team had a history of not being mentally tough,” he said. “So we wanted to show that we were. And we also wanted to make sure we took care of ourselves physically. We tried to do some hot-weather training, but we also wanted to make sure we were ultra-prepared from a recovery and nutrition standpoint.”

The Lynx opened up with wins over Iowa State, Sam Houston State, and Western Michigan. That would prove to be WMU’s only loss until the final.

“There’s a lot of mutual respect between us and WMU,” said Lippert. “Losing to them in 15s this fall hurt badly. We had circled that pool game, and then Friday night we ran into them at the team dinner and though, yeah, we might see you again. The culture of that team is spot-on.”

WMU beat Stanford in the quarterfinals 26-19, with Sean Akins’ score sealing the win. Then the Broncos shocked Mary Washington. Down 12-5, Kyle Williams, Akins, and Joseph Backe all scored to create a 24-12 lead that was enough … UMW scored to make it 24-19 but Western Michigan had won again.

But the final was one step too far. WMU scored first through Zebedee Garza on a superb individual effort. But it had taken the Michiganders far too long to convert pressure into points. With the ball, Lindenwood-Belleville went to work. Jacobsen sidestepped a couple and was gone. In the second half, Coleson Warner, the eventual tournament MVP, saw the outside defense over-pursuing and cut back to touch down near the posts.

He converted and right after that Jacobsen saw the WMU defense bunch and raced around them all.

Warner converted, and the Lynx held on after that.

Lippert called Warner and Alex Quinn the heart and soul of the team, but it was a team effort all the way. Learning about the campus shutting down could have killed their enthusiasm. Instead, it lit a fire, and that fire burned brightly in Tucson.

Men D1AA Order of Finish:

1. Lindenwood-Belleville

2. Western Michigan

3. Mary Washington

4. St. Joseph’s

5. Stanford

6. Oregon State

7. Kennesaw State, FIU

9. Western Washington

10. Iowa State

11. Nebraska

12. Sam Houston State