Here's the latest from the Men's College 7s CRC Qualifier at the Las Vegas Invitational.

Photos Davis Barpal.

CWU thumps Tulane

Dixie State was one of the surprise teams on Thursday.

Central Washington, as expected, busted through their pool with big wins over Buffalo (34-0), Tulane (50-0), and Georgetown (32-5) to win Pool A.

"We are probably the most physical side in the tournament," said CWU Head Coach Todd Thornley. "The guys also made good decisions, and didn't over-chase on defense so they were able to make their tackles."

Notre Dame College was similarly strong in Pool B, with a 35-5 win over Harvard, a win over Colgate, and a forfeit win over Millersville.

Pool C belonged to Lindenwood as they started the day with a shutout of their closest rivals, St. Bonaventure, and cruised through Colorado and UNLV.In Pool E, there was a bit of a surprise as James Madison was put to the sword by Clemson 43-0. JMU was expected to be a serious contender to win the pool, but instead Clemson, with Jason Damm, Drew Dommel, and Hunter Dawsey forming a Killer Ds line that saw the Tigers past Madison, Montana State (36-0) and Michigan State (33-14) to go 3-0.

Pool D was a bit of a shocker, as at least Goff Rugby Report expected basically anyone but Dixie State, so of course Dixie State won the pool. DSU beat Northeastern 14-12 and Utah Valley U 17-14, and while they lost to Wheeling Jesuit 26-19, it was enough, taking the head-to-head over Northeastern to win the pool.

Santa Clara had all sorts of tough games to play in what turned out to be one of the more competitive pools, Pool F. The Broncos managed to get by Lindenwood-Belleville 19-17, and then, after beating College of Idaho 42-5, tied Western Michigan 17-17. That tie ended up not hurting them as even a close win would not have impoved Santa Clara's seeding. 

In Pool G, the first game of the day was the most telling, with a hungry New England college team beating Grand Canyon 19-12. GCU went on the beat Utah State and needed a huge win over Colorado State-Pueblo to get the wild card spot through points differential. NEC went on to beat Utah State 26-12, and CSU-Pueblo 54-0 to win the pool.

There was one more quarterfinal spot to decide, and that was for the best 2nd-place team. In the end it came down to Lindenwood-Belleville and Grand Canyon. Both teams went into their final game 1-1. Lindenwood Belleville rebounded from their 19-17 loss to Santa Clara to shut out Western Michigan 33-0 and thn crush College of Idaho 66-0. That put the Lynx at a PD of +97. Then GCU had a shot, and carrying a PD of +10, needed to beat CSU-Pueblo by 88 points. Amazingly, they almost pulled it off, beating UCP 82-0. It was an astounding display, but not quite enough.

So the quarterfinals ar as follows:

#1 Seed Lindenwood v #8 Seed Lindenwood-Belleville

#4 Seed New England College v #5 Seed Notre Dame College

#2 Seed Central Washington v #7 Seed Dixie State

#3 Seed Clemson v #6 Seed Santa Clara