BRIDGEPORT, Pa. — The newest men’s collegiate club division, the Sierra Pacific Division will celebrate its 10th year of existence in 2020 following the creation of the grouping from the Pacific Coast Division prior to the 2011 season.
HISTORY: Created in 2011, the Sierra Pacific Division has been dominated by the University of California as the Golden Bears claimed the 2012-to-2018 crowns with the University of California-Santa Cruz (2011) and California State University Maritime Academy (2019) bookending the nine-year tenure of the grouping.
In the history of the division, the top two teams every year has remained among a select group of squads as California State University-Chico (2011, 2013, 2014), Cal Maritime (2012, 2017), the University of California-Davis (2015, 2018), UC-Santa Cruz (2016) and California (2019) have all garnered runner-up finishes.
On the National stage, the Sierra Pacific Division has never captured a Men’s National Collegiate Club Championship – as California (2012) is the lone team from the group to make the title game but came up short against the University of Southern California.
However, UC-Santa Cruz has been a force when the Banana Slugs compete at the Division III National Championship as the team claimed the 2010 and 2013 titles outright, while tying with Washington University in St. Louis for the 2014 title due to a snowstorm and power outage at host Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, shutting down the pool.
Sierra Pacific Division Champion/Runner-Up
- 2011 University of California-Santa Cruz / California State University-Chico
- 2012 University of California / California State University Maritime Academy
- 2013 University of California / California State University-Chico
- 2014 University of California / California State University-Chico
- 2015 University of California / University of California-Davis
- 2016 University of California / University of California-Santa Cruz
- 2017 University of California / California State University Maritime Academy
- 2018 University of California / University of California-Davis
- 2019 California State University-Maritime Academy / University of California
National Championship Appearances
- 2010 – University of California-Santa Cruz (Division III National Champion)
- 2012 – University of California (National Collegiate Club Championship Runner-Up)
- 2013 – University of California-Santa Cruz (Division III National Champion)
- 2014 – University of California-Santa Cruz (Division III co-National Champion)
MEMBERSHIP: The Sierra Pacific Division was comprised of 10 teams during the 2019 season with California State University Maritime Academy, California State University-Chico, the University of California-Davis “A”, Stanford University, the University of California-Santa Cruz, San Jose State University, California State University-Monterey Bay, the University of California-Merced and the University of California-Davis “B” finishing first-to-10th, respectively.
NEED MORE INFORMATION: The Collegiate Water Polo Association publishes the contact information for the collegiate club teams. CLICK HERE to review the men’s collegiate club programs’ contact information.