Mt. San Antonio claims CCCAA title for 2021-22 NATYCAA Cup; Riverside City and Sierra complete top three

2021-22 CCCAA NATYCAA Cup: Overall Standings l Scoring by Sport
NATYCAA Standings: State Association Daktronics Cup l Learfield Cup

SACRAMENTO – Sparked by five countable state championships among its eight top-three finishes overall, the Mt. San Antonio College athletic program once again reigns supreme after capturing its eighth consecutive NATYCAA Cup all-sports championship among CCCAA schools. Additionally, the Mounties captured the State Association Divisions Daktronics Cup contested between the CCCAA and the Northwest Athletic Conference and were runner-up in the Learfield IMG Sports Directors Cup competition among all two-year schools in the country.

Mt. San Antonio was presented with its awards during the NACDA Convention in Las Vegas this week. 

The NATYCAA Cup is being awarded for the first time since the 2018-19 athletic year after the pandemic disrupted the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons. The Mounties tallied 180 points among its 10 countable sports, beating runner-up Riverside City (153.0), Sierra (146.0), Orange Coast (139.0) and American River (129.0) in the top five. Saddleback (124.0), Fresno City (122.5), San Joaquin Delta (180.5), West Valley (107.5), Hartnell (105.0) and Ventura (100.0) round out the top 11 teams, all of them scoring in impressive triple-digits. 

Colleges are awarded points based on their teams’ final positions in post-conference competition with state championships worth the most points (20). Each college’s top-five men’s and top-five women’s team results count toward the school’s overall point total. Complete standings, scoring criteria, and history of the NATYCAA Cup is available on the CCCAA website, http://cccaasports.org/NATYCAA/index. This year's complete CCCAA standings are also available above.

“Being able to crown a NATYCAA Cup champion and have so many strong finishes is the icing on the cake of having a full return to sports,” said Jennifer Cardone, Executive Director. “Congratulations to the Mounties for capturing another title but also to all of our teams for delivering exciting competition throughout the year.”

Mt. SAC used first-place finishes in women’s cross country, men’s soccer, wrestling, men’s track and field, and women’s track and field to build a dominant foundation in its scoring total while posting a runner-up showing in men’s cross country, a third-place in softball and a tie for third place in women’s soccer. The Mounties also captured the CCCAA Wrestling Dual Team Championship, which is not included in the NATYCAA scoring.

Riverside, which was also runner-up in 2018-19 had another strong athletic year, winning the baseball state championship while finishing second in football and women’s track and field while also placing third in women’s cross country and fourth in men’s. Sierra moved up a spot from its fourth-place showing in the most recent race, putting together especially strong finishes among its women’s teams where it tallied 88.5 points. A state championship in men’s swimming added strong points as well.

Riverside City, Sierra and Orange Coast followed Mt. SAC in the Daktronics Cup standings. Thirteen of the top 15 finishers were from the CCCAA. Riverside was eighth for the Learfield Cup while Sierra was ninth and Orange Coast 11th.

Altogether, 85 of the CCCAA’s 110 programs (77.2 points) tallied points toward the NATYCAA Cup. 

NATYCAA is the professional organization of two-year college athletic administrators and membership is open to all two-year institutions throughout the country. The NATYCAA Awards were designed to recognize and reward overall program excellence at the two-year college level. The criterion for the State Association’s division was developed by the CCCAA in conjunction with the California Community College Sports Information Association (CCCSIA).