Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens is the joint athletics program for

Pomona College Pomona College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Claremont, California. It was established in 1887 by a group of Congregationalists who wanted to recreate a "college of the New England type" in Southern California. In 1925, it became ...

and

Pitzer College Pitzer College is a private liberal arts college in Claremont, California. One of the Claremont Colleges, the college has a curricular emphasis on the social sciences, behavioral sciences, international programs, and media studies. Pitzer is k ...

, two of the

Claremont Colleges The Claremont Colleges (known colloquially as the 7Cs) are a consortium of seven private institutions of higher education located in Claremont, California, United States. They comprise five undergraduate colleges (the 5Cs)— Pomona College, Sc ...

. It competes in the

Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference The Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) is a college athletic conference that operates in the NCAA's Division III. The conference was founded in 1915 and it consists of twelve small private schools that are located in ...

(SCIAC) of the

NCAA Division III NCAA Division III (D-III) is a division of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States. D-III consists of athletic programs at colleges and universities that choose not to offer athletic scholarships to their stu ...

. Its mascot is Cecil the Sagehen. Its primary rival is the

Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Stags and Athenas The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Stags (men) and Athenas (women) is the joint intercollegiate sports program of Claremont McKenna College, Harvey Mudd College, and Scripps College, all located in Claremont, California. The teams participate in th ...

, the joint team of the three other undergraduate Claremont Colleges.

Sports

There are 11 women's and 10 men's teams.

History

Pomona College's first intercollegiate sports teams were formed in 1895. The college was one of the three founding members of the

SCIAC The Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) is a college athletic conference that operates in the NCAA's Division III. The conference was founded in 1915 and it consists of twelve small private schools that are located i ...

in 1914, and its football team played in the inaugural game at the

Los Angeles Coliseum The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum (also known as the L.A. Coliseum) is a multi-purpose stadium in the Exposition Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. Conceived as a hallmark of civic pride, the Coliseum was commissioned in 1921 as a me ...

in 1923, losing to the

University of Southern California Trojans The USC Trojans are the College athletics in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Southern California (USC), located in Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California. While the men's teams are nicknamed the ' ...

. Between 1946 and 1956, Pomona joined with Claremont Men's College (CMC) to compete as Pomona-Claremont. In 1970, Pomona began competing with Pitzer College (then seven years old) on an interim basis, and the arrangement became permanent two years later.

The Sagehens ranked 14th out of 438 Division III schools and 2nd among SCIAC schools in the 20212022 Division III

NACDA Directors' Cup The NACDA Directors' Cup, known for sponsorship reasons as the NACDA Learfield Directors' Cup or simply as the Directors' Cup, is an award given annually by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics to the colleges and univers ...

, which ranks athletics programs and awards points relative to their finish in NCAA championships.

The

water polo Water polo is a competitive team sport played in water between two teams of seven players each. The game consists of four quarters in which the teams attempt to score goals by throwing the ball into the opposing team's goal. The team with the ...

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

, women's

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

, and women's

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

teams are regarded as particularly strong. Pomona College football team, circa 1899.jpg, Football team, , alt=Group photo of the Pomona football team wearing thick striped shirts Pomona College women's basketball team photo, 1903.jpg, Pomona organized the first women's basketball team in Southern California in 1903., alt=Eight women in dresses stand in a line on a patch of dirt in front of Holmes Hall; one in the center holds a basketball with "'03" written on it Football team of Pomona College class of 1907.jpg, alt=A football team crouching in preparation for a snap on a dirt field, Football team class of 1907 Pomona College football team, 1911 (cropped).jpg, Football team in 1911, alt=A cluster of American football players collide on a dirt field Pomona College Baseball Team vs. Boston Red Sox.jpg, Baseball team playing the

Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Founded in as one of the American League's eight ...

, , alt=Baseball game Pomona College track meet, 1912.jpg, Track meet, 1912, alt=Runner on track, with spectators in formal attire

National championships

Team

Facilities

Pomona-Pitzer's primary indoor athletics facility is the Liliore Green Rains Center for Sport and Recreation, built in 1989 and located near the center of Pomona's campus. It was reconstructed and renovated in 2022. The Rains Center is complemented by various outdoor facilities, mostly located within the naturalistic eastern portion of Pomona's campus known as

the Wash The Wash is a rectangular bay and multiple estuary at the north-west corner of East Anglia on the East coast of England, where Norfolk, England, Norfolk meets Lincolnshire and both border the North Sea. One of Britain's broadest estuaries, it i ...

Nickname and mascot

The official

mascot A mascot is any human, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or brand name. Mascots are also used as fi ...

of the team

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 masc ...

is Cecil the Sagehen, a

greater sage-grouse The greater sage-grouse (''Centrocercus urophasianus''), also known as the sagehen, is the largest grouse (a type of bird) in North America. Its range is sagebrush country in the western United States and southern Alberta and Saskatchewan, Canad ...

(''Centrocercus urophasianus''). The bird is a large ground-dweller native to the western United States (although not Southern California), and is distinguished by its long, pointed tail and complex

lek mating A lek is an aggregation of male animals gathered to engage in competitive displays and courtship rituals, known as lekking, to entice visiting females which are surveying prospective partners with which to mate. A lek can also indicate an avail ...

system. It is named after the

sagebrush Sagebrush is the common name of several woody and herbaceous species of plants in the genus ''Artemisia''. The best known sagebrush is the shrub ''Artemisia tridentata''. Sagebrushes are native to the North American west. Following is an alph ...

on which it feeds. Pomona-Pitzer is the only team in the world to use the Sagehen as a mascot, and it is often noted for its goofiness. Rather than in the grouse's natural brown and white colors, the mascot is rendered in the team's official colors, blue (for Pomona) and orange (for Pitzer). The precise origin of the nickname is unknown. Pomona competed under a variety of names in its early years, including "the Blue and White" and "the Huns". The first known appearance of "Sagehens" was in a 1913 issue of ''

The Student Life ''The Student Life'' (abbreviated ''TSL'') is a student newspaper covering the Claremont Colleges (7Cs, or 5Cs when referring only to the undergraduate colleges), a consortium of liberal arts colleges in Claremont, California. It is published ...

'' newspaper, and in 1918 it became the sole nickname. Later Pomona-Claremont began using it, and it is now the nickname for the combined Pomona-Pitzer team. The first known reference to "Cecil" was made in the 1946 ''Metate'' (Pomona's yearbook).

Rivalry

The Sagehens' primary

rival A rivalry is the state of two people or groups engaging in a lasting competitive relationship. Rivalry is the "against each other" spirit between two competing sides. The relationship itself may also be called "a rivalry", and each participant o ...

is the

, the joint team of the three other undergraduate Claremont Colleges. The rivalry is known as the Sixth Street Rivalry, referring to the street that separates the teams' athletics facilities. Historically, Pomona had a rivalry with the

Occidental College Tigers Located in Los Angeles, Occidental College competes in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) at the NCAA's Division III level. Approximately 25 percent of all students play a varsity sport, and nearly half of all ...