The WCHS girls rubgy team competed in a national high school rugby tournament this past weekend. (Photo provided)

WARSAW – The Warsaw Community High School girls rugby team attended the inaugural single high school national championships at Lindenwood University in St. Charles this past weekend. There were two divisions with Warsaw competing in the top division.

The club’s first game on Saturday was against Divine Holy Savior Angels from Wisconsin, which is the current Midwest champions and were ranked sixth nationally prior to this event.

Warsaw put up a strong performance, holding DHSA to 12 points in the first half. Warsaw came out hard in the second half, scoring quickly to bring the score back to 12-5. DHS would score twice late to bring the final score to 24-5. Warsaw’s Hannah Garcia was awarded MVP by the DHSA team and coaches.

The second Warsaw match of the day was against Kahuku from Hawaii, ranked 12th nationally. Warsaw started strong, scoring the first try and converting to take a seven-point lead. Kahuku came back using their large mobile forwards to level the score. Warsaw pushed hard before half-time, narrowly missing the chance to score another try before the first half ended.

Kahuku came out strong at the start of the second half, scoring without converting to take the lead at 12-7. Warsaw scored a late try with only a minute left on the clock. The conversion was missed, leaving the final score at 12 each. A sudden death conversion kick-off was then held with Warsaw losing two conversions to three, making the final score 18-16 in favor of Kahuku.