Throughout the 40 years of The Runner covering CSU Bakersfield sports teams, there have been numerous important sports moments.

Wrestling has been arguably the top sport in CSUB’s history just by the fact that they were the first team in Division I. They made that jump to Division I in 1987, and joined the PAC-8 that same year. Wrestling has won eight NCAA Division II wrestling Championships (1976, 1977, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1987). In Division I, CSUB has finished as high as third in 1996 but have also had seven individual NCAA Division I Champions.

With CSUB not having a football team, men’s basketball has become the sport with the most pressure and most hope. For those of you who may not remember or know, CSUB’s men’s basketball team had its fair share of success in Division II.

It has won three times (1993, 1994, 1997), and was the first California collegiate men’s basketball team to win an NCAA D-II Championship. Men’s swimming and diving was not too far behind, in fact, it had great success in Division II. It won 12 championships (1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004), including eight straight championships.

Men’s soccer won one championship in Division II. It came back in 1997. Though baseball was only started in 2002, it did win the regular season Western Athletic Conference in 2009 and has had 17 different CSUB players make the MLB. CSUB softball had a great deal of success winning three NCAA Division II championships (1988, 1989, 1990).

Though CSUB volleyball recently won the Western Athletic Conference Tournment in 2014, that isn’t its only championship it has won. In 1989, the CSUB volleyball team won the NCAA Division II Championship. Despite the fact that CSUB may no longer have a women’s tennis team, it still won a championship back in 1977.

The team was cut from CSUB athletics in 2012, due to not enough money for the program.