For the second-straight year, all four winter sports teams for Claremont-Mudd-Scripps have each won their respective Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) championship, to earn a clean sweep in the winter sports at the conference level. The conference’s four winter sports offered which CMS competes in are women’s swimming & diving, men’s swimming & diving, men’s basketball and women’s basketball.
Swimming & Diving (Women and Men) The 2015 SCIAC Championships hosted by Cal Lutheran at Whittier College came to a close in similar fashion on Sunday, Feb. 22 as it had the last several years. With the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps teams taking the team championship on both sides.
The Athenas won top team honors for the 13th consecutive year and 17th time overall, while the Stags clinched their eighth-straight title and 35th time in program history. CMS' senior class capped off an unprecedented four-year run, winning their eighth SCIAC championship (4 men/4 women). The Class of 2015 for CMS went 62-0 in SCIAC dual-meets and won the conference championship each year, something that no other SCIAC swim & dive program has ever done for both the women and men during the same four-year period.
Next up for some CMS swimmers and divers is the NCAA Division III National Championships in Shenandoah, Texas from March 18-21. Prior to that, NCAA Diving Prelims take place on Feb. 27-28.
Men’s Basketball With a blowout 95-55 win on the road against La Verne on Feb. 24 to wrap up the regular season, the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men’s basketball team claimed a share of the SCIAC regular season title and locked up the No. 2 seed for the SCIAC Postseason Tournament, which begins on Feb. 27. The win put CMS in a three-way tie for the regular season championship with Chapman (No. 1 seed) and Cal Lutheran (No. 3 seed).
The Stags have now won 18 SCIAC regular season titles, eight under current head coach Ken Scalmanini. CMS has made the SCIAC Postseason Tournament in every year of its existence, the only men’s basketball team to have done so.
As the No. 2 seed for the SCIAC Tournament, CMS hosts third-seeded and SCIAC co-champion Cal Lutheran in the semifinals on Friday, Feb. 27 at Pomona-Pitzer’s Rains Center, with tipoff set for 7:30 p.m. The winner of the CMS/Cal Lu match-up on Friday moves on to the finals of the SCIAC Tournament on Saturday, Feb. 28 at 7:30 p.m., against the winner of the other semifinal game between top-seeded Chapman and No. 4 seed Whittier. The championship game will be played on the home court of the highest remaining seed.
Women’s Basketball Over 25 years have passed by since the last Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's basketball team completed an undefeated conference regular season. That all changed on Feb. 21 as the CMS women’s basketball team, led by its defense, came from behind to defeat California Lutheran 56-45 to finish the SCIAC regular season at 16-0 and wrap up the conference regular season championship. The Athenas have now won 8 SCIAC regular season titles, two under current head coach Kristen Dowling.
CMS is now 22-3 on the season having won 18 games in a row and is the top seed heading into the SCIAC Postseason Tournament. CMS will host a first round game on Thursday, Feb. 26 at 7:30 p.m. at the Linde Activities Center against Redlands. Should CMS advance, the postseason tournament title game would be at CMS (also at Linde) on Feb. 28 at 4:30p.m. The win over Cal Lu broke the previous CMS women's basketball record of 17 wins in a row set back in the late '80s.
For SCIAC Tournament games that CMS hosts for both the women and men, CMS will offer live stats and live video. Other participating schools offer similar services on their websites for games that they host.
For more information on CMS Athletics and our winter sports team, please visit the CMS Athletics website.