Wheeling, W. Va. - With the 2025 15's season wrapped up, National Collegiate Rugby (NCR) released their final rankings for the year. After making it to the NCR 15's National Quarterfinals, the Wheeling University Men's Rugby team once again finds themselves in the top 10 in the nation. The Cardinals took the #7 spot overall, marking the fourth straight season that the Cardinals have ranked in the top 10 nationally during the 15's season. 

Despite a veteran roster, their was a lot of change around the Men's Rugby program, with Maxwell Hamilton entering his first season as Head Coach and the team competing in the inaugural Atlantic Rugby Conference (ARC). The team responded in stride with back-to-back 40+ point efforts in non-conference action against IUP and Rio Grande. They headed into the conference slate at 2-0, and continued the success in their inaugural ARC game with a 36-17 win over Kutztown. However, that would be their only conference win during the regular season, as they faced a challenging ARC slate. They earned another conference points with a 36-36 tie against Queens University of Charlotte on October 3rd, and the Cardinals would end up earning the final automatic qualifier when they defeated Kutztown 40-23 in the ARC Tournament. 

It would mark the fourth straight season that the Cardinals found themselves on the NCR National stage for 15's season, and they began the road to their first-ever 15's national title. They would start their run in the wild card round against Dartmouth and early on, things did not look good. The Cardinals would fall behind 28-7 in the first half, and had to battle back through the second half. They would do just that, outscoring the Big Green 31-5 over the final 40 minutes and advanced to the NCR Quarterfinals. There, they would meet Queens University of Charlotte, and looked for their first ever 15's win against the team. However, it wasn't meant to be as Wheeling fell 45-28 to end their run and head into the off-season. 

Leading the way for the Cardinals throughout the year was Alex Nyamunda, who put together a historic year for the Cardinals. He would set the single-season try record with 16 during the year and finished second on the team with 80 points. He hit the record books in the final game of the season, scoring three tries against Queens University of Charlotte, breaking a single-season record that has been held for the last 13 seasons. Along with the single-season history, Nyamunda set the career 15's try record, becoming the first Cardinal to ever break the 30-career try mark during 15's season. Also breaking the single-season try record was Panashe Mugorogodi, who also broke that single-season try record. Mugorogodi set a new career-high finishing with 15 tries on the season and added 75 points. The final record breaking performance came in the kicking game, with Taku Musingwini setting three different records. He would set the single-season conversion kicks made (27), penalty kicks made (12), and penalty kicks attempted (14) records. 

Leading the final rankings was the 2025 NCR DI National Champions St. Bonaventure, who took down Brown in the National Title game. Queens University of Charlotte and Walsh rounded out the top three, with a total of five ARC teams cracking the top 10 final rankings. A full look at the rankings can be seen below: 

The Wheeling University Men's Rugby team continues their offseason as they prepare for the upcoming 7's season.