Cal Poly Mustangs

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For the athletic program at Cal Poly in Pomona, see Cal Poly Pomona Broncos.
Cal Poly Mustangs
Logo
University California Polytechnic State University
Conference Big West Conference
Big Sky Conference (football only)
Pac-12 Conference (men's swimming and diving, wrestling)
Mountain Pacific Sports Federation
NCAA Division I
Athletic director Don Oberhelman
Location San Luis Obispo, California
Varsity teams 20
Football stadium Alex G. Spanos Stadium (football, soccer)
Basketball arena Mott Athletics Center
Baseball stadium Robin Baggett Stadium
Nickname Mustangs
Website www.gopoly.com

The Cal Poly Mustangs represent California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, California in intercollegiate athletics. The university fields twenty teams including men and women's basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, swimming and diving, tennis, and track and field; women's-only indoor track, softball, and volleyball; and men's-only baseball, football, and wrestling. The Mustangs compete in NCAA Division I; they are primarily members of the Big West Conference[1] and Mountain Pacific Sports Federation,[2] but the football team plays in the Big Sky Conference[3] and the men's swimming and diving and wrestling teams are associate members in the Pac-12 Conference.[4]

Teams

California Polytechnic State University sponsors teams in eleven men's and eleven women's NCAA sanctioned sports:[5]

  • # = Swimming & diving teams compete in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.
  • † = Wrestling is an affiliate member of the Pac-12 Conference.
  • ‡ = Indoor track & field teams compete as independents.
  • * = Beach volleyball is a fully sanctioned NCAA sport which will have its first national championship in the spring of 2016.[6] Cal Poly currently competes as an independent.

Baseball

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Main article: Cal Poly Mustangs baseball

Basketball

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Main article: Cal Poly Mustangs men's basketball

The Mustang basketball team had its most successful year in 2014, when the team won the Big West Tournament, clinching its first NCAA basketball tournament bid in school history.

Cross country

The men's cross country team has finished in the top 25 in the nation four of the past five years.[citation needed] In 2012, Coach Mark Conover and his men's squad collected its second straight Big West Conference title and 12th in the past 15 seasons.[7] Their last national placing was in 2008, when they finished 23rd at the National Cross Country Championships. Also in 2012, the women’s program nabbed its first Big West Conference crown since 2001.[7]

Football

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Main article: Cal Poly Mustangs football

Mustang Football plays in the Big Sky Conference, competing in the Football Championship Subdivision. Prior to joining the Big Sky Conference in 2012, the team competed in the Great West Conference and is the first Great West Football Conference participant in the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs. Each year Cal Poly plays rival UC Davis in the annual Battle for the Golden Horseshoe.

Soccer

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Main article: Cal Poly Mustangs men's soccer

The Cal Poly Mustangs men's soccer team has had success in recent years. In 2008, Coach Paul Holocher led his team to a 3rd place in the Big West and a spot in the NCAA Division I tournament. They went on to beat UCLA and ended up losing to UC Irvine in the 2nd round. Cal Poly soccer has a strong fan base, averaging over 3,000 fans per match in 2010.[8] In 2011, collegesoccernews.com chose Cal Poly vs. UC Santa Barbara as the No. 1 rivalry in college soccer.[9] Since 2007, the rivalry matches have regularly drawn upwards of 8,000 fans to watch the matches.[10]

Volleyball

The women's volleyball team has been one of the school's best sports programs in recent years and in the 1980s. In 2007 the team captured its second straight Big West title by posting a 15–1 conference record and a 23–8 record overall, and made it to the third round of the playoffs before losing to Stanford in the Sweet 16. The team also went 23–6 in 2006.

Wrestling

The wrestling program at Cal Poly competes as a member of the Pac-12 Conference (The Big West does not sponsor wrestling) which is traditionally one of the strongest conferences in college wrestling. Cal Poly has had two wrestlers (Tom Kline & Mark DiGirolamo) win the NCAA Wrestling Championship and 46 wrestlers earn All-American honors.[11] In addition to the program's success at the NCAA Championships the program has crowned one champion at the National Collegiate Open Wrestling Championship. On January 30, 2014 Cal Poly hosted Oregon State University in a very rare Outdoor wrestling match. The match took place in Cal Poly's University Union Plaza following the weekly UU hour. The only other known outdoor matches have been hosted by The Citadel Bulldogs, including one during the 2012-2013 season. The Arizona State Sun Devils also wrestled Arizona outdoors in the 1970s.[12]

The head coach of the Mustang Wrestling team is Brendan Buckley, currently in his 3rd season in the position. The team competes in the Mott Gym on campus opened back in 1960, seating over 3,000 people for home dual meets and tournaments.

Two former mustang wrestlers after graduation went on to compete in mixed martial arts, more specifically the Ultimate Fighting Championships. The first is Chad Mendes who was a national runner up at 141 lb in 2008 currently competing for the UFC since 2011, also he challenged for UFC featherweight title in 2012. The other wrestler is Chuck Liddell who graduated in 1995 and is now a retired UFC Hall of Fame inductee being a former UFC Light heavyweight Champion and for his contribution to the sport of MMA in the UFC organization.

Prior to joining the Division I ranks, Cal Poly was dominant in Division II, winning seven consecutive Division II championships from 1968 to 1974.

The Blue-Green rivalry

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Main article: Blue–Green Rivalry

The main rival of the Cal Poly Mustangs are the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos who compete together in the Blue–Green Rivalry. The Blue-Green Rivalry, which started in November 1921 with a football game, was formalized in 2009. This new format calculates earned points between Cal Poly and UCSB to determine a winner based on their teams' competitive results against each other.[13] Additionally, collegesoccernews.com ranked UC Santa Barbara vs. Cal Poly as the Greatest Rivalry in College Soccer.[14]

References

  1. ↑ http://www.bigwest.org/history/
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ http://pac-12.com/Sports/SwimmingDiving.aspx
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ NCAA Soccer, Men's Attendance Records, 2010 Attendance Leaders, http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/stats/m_soccer_RB/2011/attend.pdf
  9. ↑ http://www.collegesoccernews.com/index_files/Page2764.htm
  10. ↑ NCAA Soccer, Men's Attendance Records, All-Time Largest Crowds, http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/stats/m_soccer_RB/2011/attend.pdf
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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