Defending champs look solid in opener

The Saddleback surf team looked solid in the opening National Scholastic Surfing Association (NSSA) event of the season in finishing fourth at the Southwest College event at Black's Beach in San Diego on Saturday.  The defending national champions had a couple of great finishes in placing fourth out of 36 colleges.

Saddleback is coming off its third national title and quickly sent a message that they will be a factor in 2022-23.  The team had top-5 finishes by Tony Dakwar and Kai McPhillips while Taylor Stacy had one of the best waves of the weekend in the women's division.

Dakwar finished fourth in the longboard contest with a score of 9.50.  He was joined by McPhillips, who finished fourth in the shortboard with a score of 11.36.  Stacy scored a 9.7 in round two for one of the top scores at the event. 

Saddleback will be back in the water when the NSSA heads to Steamer Lane in Santa Cruz in December.