SARANAC LAKE — For Saranac Lake native Shelia Decker, the annual Can-Am Rugby Tournament holds a special place in her heart. She’s been competing in the event ever since she was about 14 years old, but this weekend’s 51st edition may be the best one yet.

On Sunday, Decker helped lead the Snowcats women’s rugby squad to a 27-14 win over the Bean Burgers, securing the women’s premier league division title — the top women’s division.

“This is my 10th tournament, and this is my first time winning,” she said. “So I’m just overwhelmed, so like, I’m ready to cry.”

Decker, who competes in the Women’s Elite Rugby league for the Denver Onyx, put together the Snowcats squad and brought along some players from the league. It’s one of the top women’s professional rugby leagues in the world — and the only one based in the United States. She said some of the Snowcats members play for Denver and New York teams.

“But then we also have D1, D2, D3 club players. from kind of all over,” she said, while noting some other squads included the Atlanta Harlequins, Burlington Rugby, Richmond Rugby, Mad River and Upper Valley.

While in the past, Decker has played for the hometown squad, the Mountaineers Rugby Football Club, this was her first time putting together her own squad.

“I’m just really excited that we’re able to come and show out for everyone in my hometown,” she said.

Decker said it was a fun experience and that the Snowcats really leaned into their cat theme as all the players had cat names on the back of their jerseys.

“I’m Fluffy,” she said. “And we just had good vibes all weekend. We really wanted to just get good (communication) and get comfortable playing together. So we did a lot of just like walking through and our biggest thing that I think we did well is our little coms, just talking to the person directly to the left and right of you and playing rugby as a team.”

The Snowcats, which won all four of its games by double-digit scores, got off to a hot start during Sunday’s championship and claimed a 19-0 lead at halftime, which Decker said was a relief to be up at the intermission.

The Burgers threatened in the second half, scoring two tries, but ultimately couldn’t mount the comeback.

“We came in anticipating a game, and Burgers gave it to us,” Decker said. “They actually had some fun little kicks happening. They had some good chemistry going into it. And some of these girls are WER Boston, so we’re pretty familiar with each other. So it’s fun to play against your friends, too.”

Decker nailed two conversions and two penalty attempts. She said she used to be a kicker growing up.

“Currently, these days, I play tighthead prop for Denver WER Onyx so I haven’t gotten too much kicking in the past few years,” Decker said, with a smile. “I’ve just been saving them up for this weekend, I guess.”

Sunday marked the final day of the Can-Am Rugby Tournament, which ended after the men’s premier division championship contest. The event wrapped up with the men’s premier division championship, which saw the Kutztown Alumni beat the Eastside Hyenas 18-15.

The Mountaineers Rugby Football Club, which hosted the tournament, posted some solid results across its four teams.

The Mountaineers men’s club division team placed fifth in that division after winning a pair of consolation games on Sunday. They first defeated Buffalo 20-10, before securing a 26-14 victory over the Carolina Storm. The Mounainteers split its pool play games on Saturday, topped Monmouth Rugby Football Club 55-0 and fell to the Albany Knickerbockers 15-14.

Lumberjack RFC won the men’s club division after topping the Knickerbockers 31-6 in the championship game. On the women’s side, Team Pretty Rugby defeated the DC Furries in the club championship game on Sunday.

The Mountaineers men’s social team secured one win, while falling twice. They beat Old Scarlet (Rutgers Alumni) 24-12 on Saturday. The team’s two losses were against the Seacoast Seamen 27-14 on Friday, and Hudson Valley 29-7 on Saturday evening.

The Mountaineers women’s social squad split its four matches. The team opened up the tournament with a 17-10 loss to the Akron Women’s Rugby Club, before winning back-to-back contests on Saturday. The Mountaineers topped the Saratoga Fillies 28-5 and the South Jersey Disco Devils by score of 42-10.

After taking a 7-0 lead in Sunday’s consolation game against Charles River, the Mountaineers were unable to hang on and fell 17-12.

The West Hartford Exiles won the men’s social title 8-0 over Cold Hills (UVM Alumni), while New Haven won the women’s title with a 28-5 win against Burbany Mom Jeans.

In the old boys divisions, Eastside Hyenas beat Elysium 20-15 in the over-35s group; the Brockport Doggies beat Connecticut Grey 27-10 in the over-45s; Schenectady Reds defeated Connecticut Grey 9-3 in the over-55s; and Pendercola beat Connecticut Grey 9-7 in the over-60s.

In the first-ever Old Girls over-35 group, the Olde Girls defeated Olde Love 17-0.

Complete results can be found at tinyurl.com/5yu2u834.

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Check out more photos at https://tinyurl.com/2ytkhybk

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