College Roundup: UCI women’s water polo clinches Big West title

WOMEN’S WATER POLO

UC Irvine 7, Long Beach State 2

LONG BEACH — Junior McKenna Mitchell scored three goals to help the visiting Anteaters clinch the outright Big West Conference regular-season title on Thursday.

No. 5-ranked UCI (18-7, 4-1 in conference) will be the top seed in the Big West tournament.

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WOMEN’S TENNIS

Vanguard 5, Arizona Christian 3

INDIAN WELLS — The No. 4-seeded Lions upset the top-seeded Firestorm in the semifinals of the Golden State Athletic Conference Tournament on Thursday at Indian Wells Tennis Garden.

No. 19-ranked Vanguard (8-15), playing its final season as the school will discontinue the program after this season, received wins in singles and doubles from Michelle Sullivan and Nataliya Yamkova to hand No. 9-ranked ACU (22-2) its first loss in GSAC play this season.

Ashley Wao-Udim teamed with Sullivan to earn a doubles win, while Yamkova paired with Sarah Edwards to win its doubles match.

Vanguard faces No. 14-ranked Concordia in the championship match on Friday at 9 a.m.

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MEN’S TENNIS

Vanguard 5, Westmont 0

INDIAN WELLS — The top-seeded Lions improved to 24-0 and will bid for their third straight Golden State Conference Tournament crown after the semifinal trouncing on Thursday.

Roger Muri and Filip Burnac won in singles and doubles for the No. 3-ranked Lions, whose program will be discontinued after this season.

Westmont is ranked No. 13.

Coach Mattias Johansson’s Lions meet San Diego Christian in the final on Friday at 9 a.m.

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WOMEN’S SWIMMING

Orange Empire Conference Championships

MISSION VIEJO — Orange Coast College won three of the five finals contested to take an early lead in the team standings Thursday at Saddleback College.

Alexa Clayfield won the 200-yard individual medley in 2 minutes, 11.12 seconds and OCC teammate Rebecca Aguilar topped the field in the 50 freestyle in 24.08 seconds.

Aguilar and Clayfield were joined by Chloe Kim and Audrey Hung to win the 200 free relay in 1:38.33.

OCC’s 253.5 points are well ahead of second-place Golden West (155).

Kim was second in the 200 IM (2:12.12), while OCC’s Candis Buck was second in the one- and three-meter diving finals.

OCC’s Kessy Hickey was third in the 50 free (24.98) and Ashley Demont was fifth in the 200 IM (2:23.67).

Hickey, Valerie Acosta, Kim and Hung were second in the 400 medley relay (4:09.43).

The meet concludes Friday with preliminaries at 9:30 a.m. and finals at 3:30 p.m.

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MEN’S SWIMMING

Orange Empire Conference Championships

MISSION VIEJO — Clay Nguyen finished second in the 200-yard individual medley to lead Orange Coast College in the first day of the two-day event on Thursday at Saddleback College.

OCC, with 179.5 points, is behind Golden West (237.5) and Riverside (217).

Nguyen’s time was 1 minute, 56.14 seconds, ahead of teammates Jacob Outsen (1:58.15) and Tyler Connors (1:58.45), who were third and fourth, respectively.

OCC’s Kyle Bogel was fourth in the 500 freestyle (4:47.54).

Connors, Alexander Cargill, Joshua Mesa and Josh Hayashi combined to finish second in the 400 medley relay in 3:32.26.

The meet concludes Friday with preliminaries at 9:30 a.m. and finals at 3:30 p.m.