This is the busiest time of the year for college sports.

As fall sports programs get deeper into their championships, winter sports seasons like basketball are gaining momentum.

This past weekend, both USD’s Division I men’s soccer and the Point Loma Nazarene Division II women’s soccer programs reached the Sweet 16 of their respective NCAA tournaments, while the men’s and women’s cross country teams at Mesa College claimed state championships.

And a number of local college basketball programs continued fast starts.

Let’s start with Mesa College. Both the Olympians’ cross country teams dominated at the California Community College State Championships in Fresno.

The men won their sixth state title with a score of 47 to 98 for runner-up Mt. San Antonio College. Cuyamaca College placed 20th in team scoring. It was the first men’s title for Mesa since it won back-to-back state titles in 2019 and 2021.

The women won their second state title with a score of 85 to 125 for Clovis. (In cross country, the low score wins.)

Ian Rosen finished fourth with a time of 20 minutes, 57.1 seconds. Alex Leroy finished ninth in 21:07.1, Ronald Way was 11th in 21:09.5, and Luciano Roberts (21:18.9) and Josh Edwards (21:26.1) finished 16th and 17th, respectively.

On the women’s side, Natalie Allen (11th, 19:10.6) and Joelle Tonne (12th, 19:18.6) both finished in the top 20.

Both the USD men and the PLNU women scored a pair of one-goal wins last week to advance in their respective NCAA tournaments.

USD (15-2-2) defeated UC Davis and No. 10 Duke by identical 1-0 scores and will host Vermont (13-2-5) Sunday at 5 p.m. at Torero Stadium in its Division 1 Sweet 16 match.

Defending NCAA Division II national women’s champion PLNU hosted the first round of the 2024 West Regionals and defeated Simon Fraser and Hawaii-Hilo by identical 2-1 scores. The second-seeded Sea Lions (17-2-1) will play at top-seeded Cal Poly Pomona (18-1-2) Saturday at 1 p.m. If the Sea Lions win, they will host the West Regionals championship game on Dec. 7.

PLNU women’s volleyball team (25-1) will open NCAA Division II tournament action next week. And the men’s basketball team is off to a 6-1 start after the 16th-ranked Sea Lions traveled to Washington to defeat No. 12 Saint Martin’s 92-88 last Saturday.

SDSU women, UCSD men start fast

The San Diego State women’s basketball team is off to a 6-0 start for the first time since the 1988-89 season. Nat Martinez was named the Mountain West Freshman of the Week for scoring 21 points with eight assists in wins over Cal Baptist and Cal State Bakersfield. Adryana Quezada and Veronica Sheffey lead the Aztecs with 12 and 10 points per game, respectively.

UC San Diego’s men’s team is 5-2 after defeating La Salle (72-67), James Madison (73-67) and Toledo (80-45) to win the Boardwalk Battle Tournament at Daytona Beach, Fla. Tyler McGhie (19.3-point average) and Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones (18.0 points, 5.4 rebounds) pace the Tritons.

San Diego City College’s men’s basketball team is 5-1 and ranked seventh in the state after defeating host and 22nd-ranked Allan Hancock College 73-67 to win the Home Motors Tournament. The Knights also defeated 12th-ranked San Jose 58-54 in the tournament before overcoming a 20-point deficit to Allan Hancock.

JC updates

Defending state champion and No. 2 seed Mesa (23-1), No. 8 seed Palomar (18-5) and No. 11 seed Grossmont (19-8) begin play Tuesday in the Southern California Regionals of the California Community College Women’s Volleyball Championships after drawing first-round byes. MiraCosta College lost its first-round match to Bakersfield, 3-1.

Eighth-seeded Southwestern (19-2-1), 12th-seeded MiraCosta (17-5-1), 20th-seeded Miramar (15-8) and 23rd-seeded San Diego Mesa (13-9) all lost in the second round of the Southern California Regionals of the California Community College Women’s Soccer Championships.

Originally Published: November 25, 2024 at 3:29 PM PST