—Submitted Photo The Fort Dodge Stags rugby team placed fifth at the state tournament on Friday.

CEDAR RAPIDS — The Fort Dodge rugby team went into the state championships as the eighth seed, and came home with a fifth place finish.

The Stags faced top-seed Waverly-Shell Rock in the first round, losing 21-12, but came back with two straight victories for the fifth place finish at the Iowa Youth Rugby League Class 2A tournament.

“I’m really proud of the guys,” said Fort Dodge head coach Tom McClimon. “I think fifth is about where we were as a team, but the guys battled to even qualify and then knocked off two teams that beat them earlier.”

In the tournament, Jesse Egli had four tries, while Jayce Skow, Cael Adams, Gavin Pederson, Sammy Davidson, Qyinton Jaeschke and Owen Stok each had tries. Carlos Elias had two conversions.

The Stags (8-12-1) won eight of their final 11 matches this season. Fort Dodge was the state runner up a year ago and placed fifth in 2022, and third in 2023

Fort Dodge lost to Waverly-Shell Rock 17-10 earlier this year inside Dodger Stadium and the Stags edged W-SR in the semifinals last year.

To advance to the fifth place match, the Stags beat fourth-seed Iowa City West 27-12. To secure a fifth-place finish the Stages knocked off sixth-seed Southeast Polk 15-10 for the victory.

“This was a great testament to the seniors and what they did for the program,” McClimon said. “Lots of teams would love fifth place.

“Fifth, third, second, fifth isn’t a bad run at all for the last four years.”