Surf captures NSSA state title

The Saddleback College surf team won its fourth National Scholastic Surfing Association (NSSA) state championship on Sunday at Huntington Beach.  The Bobcats narrowly edged the defending national champions from Point Loma Nazarene University.

Saddleback and Point Loma are starting to develop quite a rivalry.  The Bobcats won the 2022 NSSA national title and Point Loma was the winners in 2023.  This season it appears the two programs are on another collision course after Saddleback edged Point Loma for the state title at the Huntington Beach Pier on Sunday.

Saddleback had a number of sensational performances in the competition.  Taylor Stacy had the best finish when she grabbed second place in the women's longboard competition out of 60 competitors.  Another great performance was turned in on the women's side by Scout Mitchell, who was 10^th out of 60 in the women's shortboard competition.

On the men's side, Dane Matson was tremendous in finishing fourth in the men's shortboard competition out of 180 participants.  Another top-5 performance was turned in by Tommy Coleman, who was fifth in the longboard competition.  One other top-10 was turned in by Brayden Burch, who was 8^th in the men's shortboard competition.

Saddleback finished with 122 team points, followed by Point Loma Nazarene and UCLA.

Saddleback, Point Loma Nazarene and UCLA will all battle for the national championship with close to 30 other programs on June 14-16 at Dana Point.  Saddleback has won three NSSA national championships, taking home the hardware in 2006, 2014 and 2022.