The Cal Poly Pomona baseball team finished off what has been a grand year for the school’s athletic department, ending up third, just one game short of playing for a national title.

But the Broncos had success across the board and captured the Robert J. Hiegert Commissioner’s Cup for the first time.

Chico State and UC San Diego, the schools that traditionally battle it out for that honor, were second and third respectively.

The award, named in honor of former Commissioner Robert J. Hiegert, is given to the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) member institution with the highest aggregate ranking in eight of the CCAA’s 12 championship sport offerings.

“We looked at it at the end of the winter, and we thought we had a chance,” Cal Poly Pomona Athletic Director Brian Swanson said. “Then halfway through the spring we really felt good about where we were at.”

Cal Poly Pomona collected 16 points with CCAA titles in baseball and men’s basketball. Previously, the Broncos’ best finish in the Commissioner’s Cup was third place.

The eight CPP teams that contributed points all finished third or better in the conference regular-season standings. The other Broncos’ squads — men’s soccer and volleyball — also put together great seasons. Men’s soccer captured the CCAA tournament title while volleyball posted a 15-10 overall record.

In the fall, the Broncos earned points from men’s and women’s cross country as those programs finished second in the CCAA, with the men ending up 16th at the NCAA Division II National Championships.

CPP women’s soccer finished third in the regular season. The Broncos later reached the third round of the NCAA postseason for the first time in 15 years and closed out the campaign with a No. 16 national ranking.

For the winter sports, CPP men’s basketball placed second in the regular season and then captured the CCAA tournament title. Women’s basketball also contributed points at No. 3 in the regular season before reaching the regional title game in Alaska.

A ranking is calculated using a school’s top two conference finishes in the fall, winter, and spring, as well as the highest two other finishes. An institution’s numerical finish for team sports is determined by regular-season standings. Individual sports finishes are determined by the finishes at the season-ending championship event.

Institutions winning the conference tournament in the sports of men’s basketball, women’s basketball, men’s soccer, women’s soccer, softball and baseball deduct one point from their regular-season finish in those respective sports.

“We have had a lot of support across campus,” Swanson said. “It’s a win-win not just for us in athletics but across the whole campus. It also takes the support staff that people may not see and know much about to have this kind of success.”

Cal State San Bernardino was seventh of the 12 teams with 40.5 points, just a half-point behind sixth-place Cal State Los Angeles.

CMS tops SCIAC

The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps athletic department finished first in the SCIAC combined all-sports trophy for the 27th time overall and 26th time in the last 30 years. The Athenas won the women’s All-Sports trophy with 75.3 points and the Stags easily won the men’s title with 95.5.

In the 43 years of the men’s SCIAC All-Sports competition since 1972-73, CMS has won 38 times (including three years as Claremont-Mudd) and this marks the eighth consecutive year. The women’s competition began in the 1976-77 season and CMS has taken home the trophy 20 times, with this season making five in a row.

During the 2014-15 season in the 21 sports, CMS had 11 SCIAC championships and two tournament championships. The Stags and Athenas totaled nine SCIAC Athletes of the Year and 129 all-conference selections.

The University of Redlands was second in the men’s standings and third in the women’s standings, making for second overall.

Pomona-Pitzer was second in the women’s race.

Wimberly still looking

Wide receiver Marquis Wimberly, a 2014 graduate of Upland who played last season at Chaffey College, has five scholarship offers —South Alabama, North Texas, Georgia State, Idaho and Weber State. He visited Northern Arizona on Tuesday and Arizona State on Wednesday.

Some higher-profile schools are starting to jump on board too. Later in the week he’ll take part in a camp at Corona Centennial, where Boise State plans to visit and could make an offer. That’s the school Wimberly is highest on now, but he isn’t ruling out any of his options.

Location isn’t an issue. He just wants to play.

“I want to go to the place that gives me the best opportunity to show what I can do,” he said.

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