Claremont Keeps Dynasty Alive

Claremont-Mudd has been so dominant in Division III water polo that some people have started calling the Southern California Athletic Intercollegiate Conference “Snow White and the Five Dwarfs.”

The Stags have won 10 consecutive SCIAC titles and 100 consecutive conference matches--and this season should not be any different. Just how good is Claremont-Mudd’s program?

Start at the top.

The coach is Mike Sutton, in his 13th season at Claremont. Sutton was the team manager for the Olympic water polo team at Barcelona.

Claremont demonstrated its strength at last weekend’s tournament at UC Irvine. Chris Powell, the conference’s top offensive player, led the Stags to a 2-3 record against Division I schools.

Claremont-Mudd finished 19-13 last season and was ranked No. 22. The Stags are the only Division III team that has a realistic chance of being ranked in the NCAA top 20.

They make an annual appearance as a SCIAC representative in the Western Water Polo Championships--a tournament that includes Division I schools that are not aligned with the Pacific 10 or Big West conferences. The winner of the Western championships receives an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament.

So it is not a surprise that all the SCIAC coaches expect Claremont-Mudd to win its 11th consecutive title.

“Whether we win or not I don’t know--I know we’re going to be the favorite,” Sutton said. “But the thing I like is that (the conference) is coming after us.”

The SCIAC plays its games in 25-yard pools, which can be an equalizing factor when it comes to depth and speed. Pomona, with its 50-meter pool, is the only team that can play the 30-meter court.

“This will be one of the most competitive years in a long, long time,” Redlands Coach Tom Whittemore said. “You’ll see more games decided by fewer goals and I wouldn’t be surprised to see a lot of (series) splits. In the past, it hasn’t been that way. Usually a couple of the teams would just sweep.”

The top threats to Claremont-Mudd are Redlands and Pomona-Pitzer.

Redlands defeated Pomona-Pitzer, 9-7, in the championship match of the recent Whittier tournament, and is off to a 4-0 start. Whittemore says his team is better suited for a 30-meter pool than the 25-yard pool at Whittier. The conference tournament will be played at Whittier.

Juniors Jared Yong and Trevor Cox lead Redlands, which has had an early-season boost from freshman Greg Milton, a standout from El Dorado High School. Redlands’ strong perimeter play by Milton and Cox was a major reason that the Bulldogs were able to defeat Pomona-Pitzer in the Whittier final.

Pomona-Pitzer, which is conducting a tournament this weekend, has the conference’s most valuable player of last season, two-meter defender Barney Grubbs. Jose Hernandez, who plays the two-meter position on offense, and Jason Chung, a driver, give Pitzer a formidable trio.

Although neither will probably challenge Claremont-Mudd, Occidental and Whittier both have the talent to defeat Redlands and Pomona-Pitzer. Both schools have new coaches, though, and they have been with their teams less than three weeks because Division III schools are not allowed to start practice until Sept. 1.

Robert Jaffe, an all-conference selection, will be the top player for Occidental Coach Dennis Fosdick, who previously coached at Long Beach City College and was an assistant for U.S. Water Polo for the Olympic Festival.

Whittier will be coached by Paul Gothold, who played for the Poets only two years ago. Whittier finished 2-2 in its tournament.

“We’ll be competitive,” Gothold said. “We made a lot of mental mistakes, but it’s early in the season. I can’t fault their effort. Part of the problem is that we got tired. We just don’t have depth that Redlands or Pomona has.”

Still no one is counting them out.

Unfortunately for Caltech, with all the competitiveness in the conference, few are counting the Beavers in.

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Dave Bollwinkel resigned as coach of Cal Poly Pomona’s men’s basketball team to become an assistant coach at the University of Dayton.

Kevin Patterson has been named interim coach for the 1991-1992 season. Patterson had been an assistant to Bollwinkel for the last five seasons.

Bollwinkel got off to a rocky start with three losing seasons, but his team won 15 games in consecutive seasons--1990-91 and 91-92--for the first time in 25 years and he took the Broncos to the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. tournament in back-to-back years for the first time in school history.

Overall, Bollwinkel was 58-70 in five seasons with Pomona and was named the CCAA coach of the year in 1991.

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Pomona-Pitzer might have had the most exciting finish to a football game last weekend. Tony Fadulu scored on a four-yard run and caught a two-point conversion pass from Josh Spitzen with eight seconds left, giving Pomona-Pitzer an 8-7 victory over Colorado College Saturday at Colorado Springs, Colo. The key play in the 84-yard drive was a 17-yard pass from Spitzen to Todd Tuney to the four-yard line on fourth down.

College Division Notes

Tailback Chris Smith ran for 97 yards and a touchdown and fullback Sean Cheatham ran for 93 yards and scored twice as Redlands defeated San Diego, 28-7, and improved to 2-0. . . .Willie Reyna connected with Gabe Cotoro on a three-yard touchdown pass with 7:17 left to give La Verne (1-0-1) a 21-18 victory at Whittier (0-1). George Marquecho gained 126 yards in 19 carries and scored three touchdowns for the Poets. . . . Azusa Pacific dropped to 0-3 with a 33-25 defeat at Cal State Hayward.

Occidental could not convert a two-point conversion try with 2:42 left in it’s game at Menlo and lost, 20-19. . . . Robert Trice rushed for more than 100 yards for the second consecutive week and Joe Jezulin kicked three field goals for Cal State Northridge (2-1) in a 22-6 victory over San Francisco State (1-2). Trice, who is starting because of an injury to Jamal Farmer, had 108 yards. . . . Cal State Los Angeles, No. 6 in the NCAA Division II poll, was the only undefeated team at the Bakersfield men’s soccer tournament. Adriane Cortez won the tournament’s MVP award and Mathew Martinez was chosen to the all-tournament team for CSLA (3-0).

Claremont-Mudd (1-2) is ranked 24th in the Division III men’s soccer poll. . . . Westmont is ranked seventh in the NAIA men’s soccer poll. . . . Cal State Dominguez Hills (3-1) remained No. 1 in the NCAA Division II women’s soccer poll and Cal Poly Pomona (2-1) is No. 12. . . . Cal Lutheran (3-2) is ranked No. 10 in the NCAA Division III women’s soccer poll. . . . Cal State L.A. defeated Chapman for the title in the Cal State Dominguez Hills women’s volleyball tournament.