SPORTS RUGBY PROGRESSES TO NATIONALS

Little Giants win conference, prepare for historic first trip to national tournament

BENJAMIN BULLOCK ’23 |

SPORTS EDITOR • When the Wabash rugby team lost 3112 to John Carroll University in the semifinal of last year’s conference tournament, they were devastated. After an otherwise unbeaten season, the Blue Streaks put an end to the Wabash’s hopes of a first trip to nationals.

So when the Little Giants once again came up against John Carroll, this time in the final of the 2023 tournament, the Wabash men saw their opportunity—a chance for revenge.

The team traveled to Coraopolis, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, April 1, to compete in the Allegheny Rugby Union tournament, the final regular season event of the spring. On the line? An automatic berth to the National Collegiate Rugby tournament, a competition no Little Giants team has ever made.

Wabash received a bye in the first round and went straight into a quarterfinal game against Frostburg State University from Maryland. The game was a whitewash, and the Little Giants secured a 45-0 victory. The semifinal wasn’t much harder. Against Slippery Rock University, Wabash emerged 26-17 victors to progress further than they had this time last year.

“After losing to IUPUI in the championship game of our home tournament, it left an unsatisfying feeling in our stomachs,” said team captain Brayden Goodnight ’23.

“So as we were practicing last week, we had a little fire underneath us. It’s really just that Wabash Always Fights mentality.”

Things weren’t going to be so easy in the championship game. With a guaranteed place in the national tournament at stake, Wabash came up against a familiar foe— John Carroll.

“We have had this game in our heads since last spring,” said Goodnight. “We’ve replayed that loss over and over. And throughout the season, we’ve used that final score as motivation. Our goal was always to beat John Carroll, and that’s what we set out to do.”

But things didn’t exactly get off to the best of starts. Only a minute into the game, one of the John Carroll backs plowed through Isaac Salinas ’23 and ran free for a 50-meter try. John Carroll’s con- version was no good, making the score 0-5 early on. But the Little Giants pushed hard, and earned their just reward immediately from the kickoff. Goodnight kicked high and regained pos-

Fated to play doubles: Ethan Koeneman ’26 and Cole Shifferly ’26

ELIJAH GREENE ’25

| SPORTS COLUMNIST • Before Wabash, Ethan Koeneman ’26 and Cole Shifferly ’26 had been playing tennis in the Fort Wayne circuit since they were 10 years old. But neither of them foresaw the possibility of playing doubles together for Wabash’s Head Tennis Coach Daniel Bickett. And yet here they are, a pair that has of late looked like a force to be reckoned with. In fact, the duo has won their last three doubles matches, and done so in emphatic fashion.

“I’m from Decatur,” said Shifferly. “The only reason we know each other is because we happened to play on the same tennis circuit.”

This circuit in question is the Fort Wayne circuit, a self-contained pocket of tennis competition found within the city limits. Since Shifferly lived 40 minutes outside of the city, he used to commute to play where the talent was.

It was here that Koeneman and Shifferly first met and played doubles together. But since they didn’t go to the same school, their relationship remained strictly professional in high school.

For Koeneman, a graduate of Carroll High School-Fort Wayne, the idea of playing with Shifferly occurred to him early on.

“Growing up, I wanted Cole to go to Carroll because we would have been a good team,” said Koeneman. “But he was always further south and homeschooled. We would have been amazing, but he didn’t [go to Carroll] so we weren’t close.”

Interestingly enough, they didn’t make the decision to come to Wabash together either. Shifferly, like most Wabash athletes, valued both his education and his athletic ability equally and wanted to attend a school that could cater to both.

“At first I thought I wanted to play Division I tennis,” said Shifferly. “But then I figured that I would have to think about my education. Because tennis is only half my life.

“When I first visited Wabash, I didn’t think I would like it that much,” added Shifferly. “It was kind of a weird school.”

Despite the weirdness, Shifferly committed. Not long after, Koeneman committed as well—but for completely different reasons.

“I knew I wanted to play [college tennis] because I had the opportunity,” said Koeneman. “And college sports run in my family..”

Also like Shifferly, Koeneman initially wanted to play in Division I.

“I really wanted to go to IU,” said Koeneman. “But I knew that if I wanted to play tennis, I would have to pick Wabash. I said to myself before I committed, so it was just a coincidence. [Wabash] was in my top five before I knew Cole committed.”

Once at Wabash, the two reunited as associates of Lambda Chi Alpha in the fall. Now official brothers of the house, the pair spend as much time together off the court as they do on it.

And their friendship off the court has paid dividends, which is evident in their play.

“I think it’s good that I know that Ethan can take the criticism that I give him. He’s going to be strong in his position, but he is going to listen to me,” said Shifferly. “And vice versa. If Ethan tells me I’m doing something completely wrong, I might not think that’s wrong, but I’ll say ‘let’s try it.’”

The duo prides themselves on the energy and competition that they bring to the court during their play.

From travel tennis at a young age to the Collett Tennis Center, Koenenman and Shifferly’s relationship has come a long way from when they were 10. Despite their unique paths to Wabash, it’s hard to listen to their story and not think that a higher power isn’t at work.

“I think fate had some sort of plan,” said Shifferly.

As brothers, friends and teammates, Koeneman and Shifferly embody the Wabash spirit, competitive to their core. They are but two of the batch of talented, en- session, running in to level the scores. The conversion put Wabash into the lead, the halftime score 7-5 to the Little Giants.

And in the second period, Wabash thoroughly asser- ted their dominance. From the kickoff again, this time it was Fil DeFrenza ’23 who took back the ball and passed it off to Lucas Budler ’24 for the try. Not long after, Goodnight collected the ball from a scrum and extended Wabash’s lead to 17-5.

John Carroll pulled back a try and conversion to make the score 17-12, but by then it was too little, too late. The damage had been done, and the Little Giants were ARU champs.

“Sweet taste of revenge?

Better than sweet,” said Matthew Brooks ’24. “It felt so good to finally lift that trophy and be able to show the students here at Wabash that rugby means business.”

John Carroll may have loomed large in the Wabash psyche all year, but when it mattered it was the Little Giants that finally emerged victorious. However, the victory wasn’t a product of luck; it was a result of a year’s worth of training and planning.

“John Carroll is, without a doubt, a strong rugby team and a good program,” said Budler. “However, this season, we were much more prepared to face them as we played a tougher schedule before the conference tournament to sharpen up and really dissect our weaknesses. Essentially, we lost to learn how to win. This worked well for us as we were mentally prepared, united and committed to playing a game of winning rugby against a bigger and stronger program.”

The team will need to utilize all of that experience again as they look forward to the national championship on the weekend of April 28-30.

And though the schedule has yet to be determined, Wabash has already begun its preparations.

“Yes we won conference, and yes we’re ecstatic about that, but now we have our next goal to meet,” said Brooks. “So, it’s back to the grind, and we’re excited for it. We’re back practicing, we’re back to watching film and we’re back in our routine for the next few weeks.”

This year will mark the first time a Wabash rugby team has ever made the national tournament, an achievement made all the more remarkable when one considers the team is a club sport with no official head coach.

Despite a two-decade long push to make rugby a varsity sport, the efforts have been to no avail.

With this being the club’s first time at nationals, there is a real sense of stepping into the unknown. But the mystery, Goodnight says, cuts both ways.

“I’m not really sure what to expect to be honest,” said Goodnight. “I don’t know which teams we will play, but that doesn’t really scare any of us. The other teams don’t know us either, so I think we can take a few by surprise.”

The NCR national tournament gets underway on Friday, April 28, at the University of Maryland. All games will be livestreamed and The Bachelor will provide live coverage of the entire weekend.