Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens

Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens is the joint athletics program for Pomona College and Pitzer College, two of the Claremont Colleges. It competes in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) of the NCAA Division III. Its mascot is Cecil the Sagehen. Its primary rival is the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Stags and Athenas, the joint team of the three other undergraduate Claremont Colleges.[4]

For club and intramural sports at the Claremont Colleges, see Claremont Colleges § Athletics.
Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens
CollegePomona College
Pitzer College
ConferenceSouthern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference[1]
NCAADivision III
Athletic directorMiriam Merrill[1]
LocationClaremont, California
Football stadiumMerritt Field[2]
Basketball arenaVoelkel Gymnasium
Baseball stadiumAlumni Field
Softball stadiumPomona-Pitzer Softball Stadium
Soccer stadiumPomona-Pitzer Soccer Stadium
Lacrosse stadiumSouth Athletics Complex
NatatoriumHaldeman Aquatics Center
Other arenasPauley Tennis Complex
Strehle Track
MascotCecil the Sagehen
NicknameSagehens
ColorsBlue, Orange, and White[3]
              
Websitewww.sagehens.com

Sports

There are 11 women's and 10 men's teams.[5]

Women's sports† Men's sports†
BasketballBaseball
Cross countryBasketball
GolfCross country
LacrosseFootball
SoccerGolf
SoftballSoccer
Swimming and divingSwimming and diving
TennisTennis
Track and fieldTrack and field
VolleyballWater polo
Water polo
† Includes only varsity sports, not intramural or club sports

History
Pomona organized the first women's basketball team in Southern California in 1903.[1]
Members of the Pomona football team from the class of 1907

Pomona College's first intercollegiate sports teams were formed in 1895.[1] The college was one of the three founding members of SCIAC in 1914, and its football team played in the inaugural game at the Los Angeles Coliseum in 1923, losing to the University of Southern California Trojans.[1] Between 1946 and 1956, Pomona joined with Claremont Men's College (CMC) to compete as Pomona-Claremont.[1] In 1970, Pomona began competing with Pitzer College (then seven years old) on an interim basis, and the arrangement became permanent two years later.[1]

The Sagehens ranked ninth out of 446 Division III schools and second among SCIAC schools in the 2019–2020 NACDA Directors' Cup Division III Final Fall Standings, which ranks athletic programs and awards points relative to their finish in NCAA Championships.[6][7] The water polo, track and field, and soccer teams are regarded as particularly strong.[8]

Nickname
A Pomona-Pitzer football game on Merritt Field

Pomona competed under a variety of names in its early years, including "the Blue and White" and "the Huns".[1] The first known appearance of the nickname "Sagehen" is in a 1913 issue of The Student Life newspaper, and in 1918 it became the sole nickname.[9] One popular myth is that a reporter intended to refer the teams as sage Huns, but accidentally typed "hens". However, many say this tale is very unlikely because the "u" and "e" on a keyboard are quite far apart.[9] Later Pomona-Claremont began using it, and it is now the nickname for the combined Pomona-Pitzer team.

"Sagehen" refers to the Greater Sage Grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus), a large ground-dwelling bird native to the western United States (although not Southern California), distinguished by is its long-pointed tail. It feeds mainly on sagebrush (hence its name).

Mascot
The third iteration of the Cecil the Sagehen costume (adopted in 2017[10]) dabbing
A real-life sagehen

Cecil the Sagehen is the official mascot of the team, and serves as its graphic image. The first reference to "Cecil" was made in the 1946 Metate (Pomona College's yearbook).[11] Rather than in grouse's natural brown and white colors, the mascot is rendered in the team's official blue and orange colors.[12]

Rivalry

The Sagehens' primary rival is the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Stags and Athenas, the joint team of the three other undergraduate Claremont Colleges.[13] The rivalry is known as the Sixth Street Rivalry,[14] referring to the street that separates the teams' athletic facilities.

References
  1. "Athletic History". Sagehen Athletics. Archived from the original on August 18, 2018. Retrieved 17 August 2018.
  2. "Pomona Pitzer Athletic Facilities". SageHens.com. Retrieved July 27, 2020.
  3. "Cecil Image and Athletics Color Usage Guidelines". Pomona.edu. Retrieved July 27, 2020.
  4. "Sports and the Outdoors". Pomona College. Retrieved 3 September 2018.
  5. "Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens". Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens. Retrieved 3 September 2018.
  6. "2019-20 Learfield IMG College Directors' Cup Division III Fall Standings As of December 24, 2019" (PDF). National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics.
  7. "Division III 2019-20 Facts and Figures" (PDF). NCAA. Retrieved 29 July 2020.
  8. Fiske, Edward B. Fiske guide to colleges 2020 (36th ed.). Naperville, Illinois. p. 147. ISBN 9781492664949. |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  9. "The History of Cecil the Sagehen". Pomona-Pitzer Athletics. Retrieved 2016-12-08.
  10. "Cecil 3.0". Pomona College Magazine. Retrieved 27 July 2020.
  11. Hotaling, Debra (February 7, 1999). "Mascots Unmasked". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 3 September 2018.
  12. "Cecil Image and Athletics Color Usage Guidelines". Pomona-Pitzer Athletics. Retrieved 2018-09-27.
  13. "Sports and the Outdoors". Pomona College. Retrieved 3 September 2018.
  14. Shapiro, Noah (26 April 2019). "Business as usual: Sagehen women's water polo beats CMS for 13th straight time". The Student Life. Retrieved 6 August 2020.


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