College notebook: SRJC, SSU teams finding fall success

Fall sports teams at Santa Rosa Junior College and Sonoma State have hit the midway point of conference play and will head into the home stretch of the regular season over the next several weeks.

A few teams are well positioned to close out conference play strong and potentially bring home a title.

Here’s an update on a few of the top Bear Cubs and Seawolves teams this fall.

SRJC

Football

The Bear Cubs were on their bye last week but are sitting at 2-3 heading into their NorCal Conference opener this weekend at Butte (3-2). SRJC’s offense erupted in a 47-18 win over Chabot before a few turnovers spelled a 23-13 loss to Reedley the week before their bye.

Freshman quarterback Santino Chavez has complete 64% of his passes for 681 yards with six touchdowns and three interceptions. Rancho Cotate grad Rasheed Rankin leads the team on the ground with 212 yards, while Piner products Adrian and Isaac Torres have six touchdowns combined.

Isaac, a freshman wide receiver, leads the team with 402 receiving yards on 33 receptions with four scores. Defensively, Dillon Tingle from Middletown has 44 tackles (six for loss) with two sacks and a forced fumble and Rancho Cotate grad Dimitri Johnson has 35 tackles (five for loss) with a team-high 3½ sacks and an interception.

Men’s soccer

SRJC is riding an eight-match unbeaten streak and currently sits in second place in the Big 8 at 2-0-2 and 6-2-3 overall. The Bear Cubs have a huge conference match Friday against first-place Cosumnes Rivers (9-2-1, 4-0). Piner grad Victor Vargas leads the team with 19 points (six goals, seven assists).

Volleyball

The Bear Cubs are 11-5 overall and tied for third in the Big 8 at 5-2. They’ve won four of their last five matches, are 8-0 on their home court and are coming off a five-set win over Folsom Lake, ranked No. 17 in the California Community College Athletic Association.

Wrestling

Ukiah grad Frankie Pomalia IV is putting together a top-tier season for SRJC. The freshman is currently ranked fourth in the state for 197 pounds, and while he lost two matches in a tournament at Modesto last weekend, they were to the No. 2 and No. 3-ranked wrestlers in the weight class.

SSU

Women’s soccer

The Seawolves are unbeaten in their last five matches and will take an 8-2-2, 4-1-1 record into Friday’s conference match at Cal State LA. SSU currently leads the California Collegiate Athletic Association in scoring at a 2.167 goal-per-game clip, led by sophomore Lexi Zandonella-Arasa, who has a conference-best 10 goals in 12 games.

Men’s golf

Senior Griffin Pace shot an 11-under par 205 to win the Wildcat Classic in Marysville last week, placing first overall as an individual and leading the Seawolves to a third-place finish in the 11-team field. Pace shot two tournament-low rounds of six-under par 66 in the first and second rounds before carding a 73 to record his first collegiate win and earned CCAA Men’s Golfer of the Week honors.

Volleyball

No local team is currently hotter than SSU volleyball. The Seawolves have won five in a row, all 3-0 sweeps, to push their record to 13-5 overall and 6-4 in the CCAA. They’ll look to keep up their winning ways this weekend with two tough matches at Cal State Dominguez Hills and at first-place Cal State LA, ranked No. 24 in the nation.

Women’s cross country

Freshman Gianna Bomarito ran to a record-breaking win in her race at Lehigh University’s Paul Short Run two weeks ago, earning CCAA Women’s Cross Country Runner of the Week honors. Bomarito’s winning time in her division was 20 minutes, 52.9 seconds, a new personal record by 40 seconds and the first sub-21-minute 6K time in program history. The previous record was 21:02, set by Analicia Garcia.

You can reach Staff Writer Gus Morris at 707-304-9372 or gus.morris@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @JustGusPD.