{"id":2448987,"date":"2019-09-20T23:04:00","date_gmt":"2019-09-21T05:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/ruggerfest-picks-up-the-pace-saturday-with-open-division-play\/"},"modified":"2019-09-20T23:04:00","modified_gmt":"2019-09-21T05:04:00","slug":"ruggerfest-picks-up-the-pace-saturday-with-open-division-play","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/ruggerfest-picks-up-the-pace-saturday-with-open-division-play\/","title":{"rendered":"Ruggerfest picks up the pace Saturday with open division play"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Mose Timoteo passes the ball to another teammate during the match against the Time at Wagner Park in Aspen on Friday, September 20, 2019. Timoteo is a former US National Scrumhef. (Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times)<\/strong>
Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

A year ago, Ben Mitchell was a player for the Gentlemen of Aspen Rugby Football Club when it won Ruggerfest. This weekend, he\u2019ll be the side\u2019s head coach as it looks to defend its championship.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s actually a bit of a relief. It\u2019s a pretty taxing weekend on the body, usually. It\u2019s going to be different, but it will be nice leading the boys for the weekend,\u201d Mitchell said prior to Friday\u2019s practice at Rio Grande Park. \u201cOne thing I really wanted to do this year was try and bring back as many guys as possible that have played the last two or three years.\u201d<\/p>\n

The men\u2019s open division gets underway Saturday morning, with the Gents scheduled to play the Glendale Merlins at 9:50 a.m. at Wagner Park in downtown Aspen. It will be the first of three pool play games the hometown team gets, with the semifinals slated for Saturday evening.<\/p>\n

The final for each of the six divisions are all held Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are pumped,\u201d said first-year Aspen player Jeff Barnhill. \u201cWe\u2019ve got a good crew compiled. Everyone is really excited. This is always a big event for the city and it\u2019s just really good to be out here with all of the boys.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Gents have a squad of about 35 players this fall, with about a dozen of them having also played for Aspen during the summer season. A large majority of the team has played in Ruggerfest before, including on last year\u2019s championship team.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone is really hungry to defend the title, and of course it\u2019s always good when the Gents get it,\u201d Barnhill said. \u201cSo everyone is really excited.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aspen has competed in the Ruggerfest final the past four years, having played the Dark \u2018n Stormy Misfits each time. Aspen won in 2015, which had been its first title since 2009 and first finals appearance since losing in the 2010 final. The Misfits then won both Ruggerfest titles in 2016 and 2017 before Aspen\u2019s dramatic rally for the 2018 championship.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got some good strength and depth, so we are feeling pretty confident,\u201d said third-year Gent Gethin Davies. \u201cBut you never know what is going to turn up in festival rugby. Anything could happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

The men\u2019s open division is comprised of two pools with four teams each playing a round-robin tournament. The top two teams from each pool will make up the semifinal, with the winners competing in the final. Competing alongside Aspen and Glendale in Pool A are the Utah Misfits and Rio Grande Cabelleros. Pool B includes the Dark \u2018n Stormy Misfits, Denver Barbarians, Boulder Rugby and NA Rugby.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a little bit of pressure,\u201d Mitchell said of defending the championship. \u201cThe expectation is on us to win the tournament. But I think a little bit of pressure helps. Guys try a little bit harder to make sure we live up to the expectations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sunday\u2019s final is tentatively scheduled for 4 p.m. at Wagner Park. Also Saturday will be the four team women\u2019s open division, which includes the Sister Wives, Boulder, Kougars & Kittens, and Vail. The women\u2019s final is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Sunday.<\/p>\n

Spectating is free.<\/p>\n

acolbert@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mose Timoteo passes the ball to another teammate during the match against the Time at Wagner Park in Aspen on Friday, September 20, 2019. Timoteo is a former US National Scrumhef. (Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times)Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times A year ago, Ben Mitchell was a player for the Gentlemen of Aspen Rugby Football Club when […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2448987","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-27 02:24:37","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2448987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2448987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2448987\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2448987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2448987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2448987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}