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BOULDER, CO -- Texas A&M University will host the first USA Rugby College Sevens Championships for men and women this Friday and Saturday at the Penberthy Rec Sports Complex (schedule and pools attached).

Twenty-four men’s teams and 11 women’s teams will compete in the two-day event, which will crown the first USA Rugby college national champions in the Olympic version of rugby.

Teams competing in the men’s championship are: Air Force, Arkansas, Arkansas St., Cal Poly-SLO, Central Washington, Colorado, Florida, Florida St., Kutztown (Pa.), Life (Ga.), Miami (Ohio), North Carolina St., Oklahoma, San Diego St., Stony Brook (N.Y.), St. Mary’s (Calif.), Tennessee, Texas, Texas A&M, UC Davis, Virginia, Western Washington, Wisconsin and Wis.-Milwaukee.

Teams competing in the women’s championship are: Arizona St., Boston College, California, Indiana, Norwich (Vt.), Oregon St., Princeton, Santa Clara, Texas, UNC-Charlotte, Virginia

This weekend’s College Sevens Championships will be the first event held by USA Rugby under the auspices of the United States Olympic Committee. Rugby Sevens was added to the roster of Olympic sports in 2009 and will be contested at the Olympics for the first time since 1924 at the 2016 Games in Rio De Janeiro.

The United States is the two-time defending Olympic rugby champion, having captured gold in the traditional 15-a-side version of the sport at the 1920 and 1924 Games.

On the men's side, the six pools of four teams include winners of regional qualifiers that were held this fall along with at-large selections that were chosen based on their regional results. These teams will compete over a two-day period during which eight teams will advance into the championship quarterfinals on day two and take one step closer to a title.

The 11 women's teams will be divided into four pools of three teams each, except for Pool D, that will see Norwich and Oregon State play each other twice on day one. All the women's teams applied for a spot in the tournament and were selected by USA Rugby’s Women’s College Competition Committee.

USA Rugby Sevens National Team head coaches Al Caravelli (men) and Ric Suggit (women) along with Men’s College All-Americans head coach Alex Magleby will be in attendance to evaluate the talent coming through the college ranks, and possibly extending camp invitations to a few outstanding players.

Along with this being the inaugural National Championship, the teams are certainly being motivated by the fact that a number of the athletes in this tournament could find themselves representing the USA in rugby Sevens at the 2016 Olympics.