South Bend, IN. - The Wheeling University Men's Rugby 7's team (8-1-1) looks to take another tournament win this weekend at the Fighting Irish 7's hosted by Norte Dame University. Wheeling went 3-1 last year at the Fighting Irish 7's. That was their only loss in the 2025 7's season. This weekend there are four pools and the winner of each pool will play in a semi final game followed by a championship or 3rd place game.
Game 1 vs Iowa @10 am
Iowa is coming off of winning the City 7's tournament clinching a national bid of their own. They also won the tournament they hosted in their first week. Iowa is a solid team, look out for Renn Heimer, Michael Johnson, and Nate Kline. Nate Kline was the man of the match last weekend for Iowa, and all three of those guys could cause trouble for Wheeling.
Game 2 vs Rio Grande @11:30
Rio Grande also competed in the Ruck the Rock last weekend, and went 1-3. Rio Grande has many common opponents with Wheeling including Kutztown, Notre Dame, and Southern Virginia. Rio Grande lost to all three of those teams whereas Wheeling beat Notre Dame 36-0 and Southern Virginia 24-10, and tied with Kutztown 14-14.
Game 3 vs Indiana @1:20
Indiana is ranked 11th in the nation by Rugby Hawk who uses margin of victory and head to head results against common opponents to determine rankings. Wheeling and Indiana already met once this 7's season at the Queens cup where Wheeling won 41-0. Shadreck Mandaza led the team with three tries in that game followed by Alex Nyamunda with two tries and Navin Couch with one try.
Wheeling should be able to take care of those first three games in pool play but after that is where they will be challenged. There are a couple ranked teams in the tournament this weekend #6 Walsh, #7 Notre Dame, and #11 Indiana. Wheeling has shutout both Notre Dame and Indiana this season, but has not met Walsh yet.
Flashback to last year and Taku Musingwini was a member of Iowa Central Community College playing against Wheeling in the Fighting Irish 7's. Musingwini led the Tritons to a 21-17 victory against the Cardinals. This year Musingwini is a Cardinal and could potentially play Iowa Central in a semi final or championship game. Avenging last year's loss will definitely be in the back of the mind of this Wheeling team.
You can follow along with this weekend's games HERE.
