Turning Clubs Into Varsity
The start of women's athletics at CMS came in 1976, when Claremont Men's College went co-ed and Scripps joined the north side of the Sixth Street athletics umbrella. The growth of CMS women's athletics, though, has been an ongoing process ever since. CMS began with five women's sports in 1976-77 (volleyball, basketball, swim and dive, track and field, tennis), and then added cross country (1977), soccer (1985) and softball (1990) to the department. Beneath the surface was a strengthening club sports program, and the vision of several transformative figures helped elevate some of those programs to the varsity level.
Pam Tanase - Water Polo
Tanase was a standout diver for the Athenas swimming and diving team from 1984-88, earning All-America honors at nationals as a senior, and returned to Claremont to took over as the head coach of the program in 1991. During her undergraduate days, she also played club water polo when not in diving season, and one of her top priorities when she returned to campus was to advocate for women's water polo to become a funded varsity team. She helped make her case by leading the 1992 Athenas to the Collegiate II National Championship, and the next year, CMS made the announcement that the program would turn varsity beginning in 1994. Tanase stayed on board as the first head coach, earning SCIAC titles in 1997 and 1999, and then earning a place in the Ted Ducey CMS Hall of Fame in 2023.
Anna (Hewitson) Phelps - Water Polo
The first SCIAC title for the fledgling CMS varsity women's water polo program came in 1997, as the Athenas defeated three-time defending conference champion Redlands in a 9-8 overtime thriller. Senior Anna Hewitson, who earned SCIAC MVP honors that season, had a key steal while defending a 6-on-4 advantage in the final minute of overtime to set up the winning goal. That finish also was the final chapter in an impressive story arc that saw Hewitson graduate from Scripps in three years, and help build the new varsity program into champions. In her three seasons, she won SCIAC Newcomer of the Year in 1995, Collegiate II Nationals MVP in 1996, and the SCIAC MVP in 1997. She later became the first women's water polo player inducted into the Ted Ducey CMS Hall of Fame in 2011.
Lea Crusey - Lacrosse
Over the years, lacrosse has been considered an East Coast dominated sport, and it would have been easy to accept that playing at the club level was the ceiling for West Coast institutions. Lea Crusey didn't take the easy way, though, joining the club team at CMS as a first-year, and advocating for the sport to elevate to varsity level throughout her time at Claremont McKenna. That dream became a reality her senior year in 2003, raising the ceiling for the sport in the process. On the field, she led the Athenas to 10 wins in their inaugural season, as well as an impressive one-goal loss in their first-ever game to Bates, an established East Coast program. Crusey earned all-region honors in her one varsity season and was inducted into the Ted Ducey CMS Hall of Fame for her leadership efforts in 2017.
Stephanie (McLin) Singer - Golf
The newest CMS varsity program is women's golf, which won an NCAA Division III Championship in 2018. The first step was becoming a varsity program, and Stephanie McLin helped lead that charge. McLin actually began her CMS career as a softball player in 2005, but followed her first passion on the golf course, and she joined the club team while advocating for the opportunity to play at the varsity level. That move came in 2007, as McLin and CMS were at the forefront of a growth in the sport on the West Coast. George Fox and Redlands also added programs in 2007, Occidental followed in 2008, and Pomona-Pitzer and Cal Lutheran also added programs in the next three years, allowing the SCIAC to sponsor the sport for the first time in 2011-12, with the Athenas capturing the first league title. That growth still continues to this day, as CMS hosted the NCAA Division III Championships in Palm Desert this May, the first time it has ever been held on the West Coast.
As part of the 50th Anniversary of Co-Education at Claremont McKenna College (1976-2026) and the Scripps Centennial (1926-2026), the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps athletics department will be celebrating
50 Years of Athenas over the course of the 2026-27 academic year. We will be highlighting just some of the many individuals who have helped make CMS one of the top women's athletic departments in the country. Our list is not meant to be comprehensive, but will highlight some of the people who have had a significant impact on CMS Athletics, before and after their athletic careers, to help tell the story of the growth and success of the Athenas over the last five decades.
The list was developed with support from the CMC 50 years of co-education Athletics Committee, including staff leads Kerry Steere and Raechel Holmes:
Jodie Burton
Rachana Bhat
Erica Perkins Jasper
Mike Sutton '76
Felicia Davis '01
DT Graves '98
Jenna Grunwald '19
Corie Hack '19
Kathleen Hurley '80
Sue Matteson King '85
Maya Love '20
Shelby McIlroy '26
Jay Tremblay '80
Riley Zitar '26
