Charles Darwin University won a gold medal in rugby league sevens at the recent Northern University Games at Toowoomba in Queensland.
The team won the nail-biting final 18-12 against Bond University, a team that CDU had lost to earlier in the competition.
The gold medal is CDU’s first since 2003 when it won the women's volleyball event.
The side, which lost just one of 13 games, was managed by CDU Engineering student and Uni Pirates ace Robert Butcher.
CDU sent a team of 28 athletes and officials to participate in the games in rugby sevens, tenpin (fourth overall) and mixed touch (fifth overall).
CDU Sport general manager Daniel Clark said the university planned to send a team of around 60 athletes to compete in seven or eight sports at the National University Games at Perth in September.
"We are rapt to get a gold medal," Robert Butcher said. "We will be looking to send a sevens team to Perth as well and are chasing sponsorship."
Some 10 universities from Queensland and northern New South Wales competed at the 2010 Northern University Games in Toowoomba earlier this month.