Iowa State travels to Lawrence, Kansas next weekend to compete in the Heart of America Conference 7’s tournament. Throughout the tournament teams will compete with only seven players instead of the traditional 15. This is the club’s second year competing in the event with a bid to the USA Rugby Sevens tournament on the line.

Iowa State will not have to worry about defending champion, Lindenwood after their promotion to Division 1A and has provided players reason to believe this year’s tournament is up for grabs.

“Lindenwood was always the big favorite, with them out it can really be anyone’s tournament,” said team captain Allen Tessmer, senior in marketing.

Because only seven players compete in each game, several others will not travel and have the opportunity to rest this weekend.

“We’re going to send a small crew down there for the tournament and then the rest of our team will be resting up,” said Tessmer. “People who are injured are going to stay here, so it will be good to rest up and lick our wounds before we get into conference play in two weeks.”

The tournament also provides the rugby club an opportunity to find out what some of the other team’s strengths and weaknesses are as they prepare for conference play in two weeks.

Anthony Frien, junior in history and club president said it doesn’t matter to him who the club faces first in the tournament; he just wants to get back on the field, shake the loss off against Iowa and get the win.

While a lot is on the line in this weekend’s tournament, the focus of this team remains in 15’s competition.

“It is just one tournament to take the focus away from 15’s, it’s important but it’s not worth the energy,” said ISU coach Malcolm Robertson. “We don’t practice it a lot because we only have one tournament and then it’s done.”

After the tournament this weekend, the club will begin conference play against Oklahoma State on Saturday, September 28. The team will try to continue their successful 5-1 season and look to become conference champions for the first time since joining the league two years ago.