Life Roundup: Women's rugby team to play for national championship

Life’s women’s rugby team held on to beat Penn State 34-31 on Sunday in the D1 Elite semifinal to advance to the national championship for the second straight year.

The Running Eagles will face Lindenwood for the D1 Elite national championship on April 7 at Stanford.

Life used its line speed and physicality to earn the victory. Summer Harris-Jones started the scoring, and Susan Adegoke followed with two tries of her own to put the Running Eagles ahead 17-0. They led 17-3 at the half.

Harris-Jones and Adegoke continued to expand Life’s lead into the second half. Harris-Jones scored her second try of the match from Adegoke, who minutes later picked up her third try to put the Running Eagles ahead 29-10.

Megan Rom finished the scoring with 10 minutes remaining, putting Life ahead 34-17. A late push from Penn State fell short as the Running Eagles held on.

WOMEN’S WRESTLING SEVENTH AT NATIONALS

Life’s women’s wrestling team finished seventh at the NAIA Women’s Wrestling Invitational, with the program crowning its first three All-Americans.

As a first-year NAIA invitational sport, athletes who placed in the top four are considered All-Americans, while those who finish fifth through eighth are considered honorable mentions.

Life had nine women make the podium, with Tyesha Topps (109 pounds), Zoe Wight (143) and Erica Sotelo (136) earning All-American honors.

Sotelo advanced to the finals, which marked the first finalist in program history. Sotelo started with back-to-back technical falls, and a 7-0 decision earned her spot in the finals, but she lost in the finals by decision to Menlo College’s Sollin Piearcy.

Topps, a North Cobb High School graduate, placed third in her bracket. After a technical fall victory in the quarterfinals, she fell to the eventual national champion, Menlo’s Alleida Martinez, in the semifinals. Topps then responded with a technical fall and then a 6-2 decision in the third-place match.

Wight, who finished fourth, started the day with a pair of pins in the opening rounds, but she fell in the quarterfinals to the eventual national champion, Menlo’s Marilyn Garcia. Wight responded with three technical falls before falling in the third-place match.

Wight was awarded the Manuel Gorrarian Award as the wrestler who records the most falls in the least accumulative time. This marks the first time in women’s wrestling this award has been given.

Destinee Rivera (fifth, 155), Jordan Nelson (fifth, 170), Faye Cherrier (seventh, 101), Amber Garriga (eighth, 101), Aysia Cortez (eighth, 130) and Morgan Shines (eighth, 143) each earned honorable mention honors.