The Golden West men's water polo program was picked by the sports information directors in the Orange Empire Conference to repeat as conference champions. The Rustlers are looking for their sixth straight state championship in 2022.

No program has been more successful in the state than Golden West. The Rustlers have won the last five state titles and 23 total since 1976. It's no surprise that the Rustlers took home all three first place votes in the SID's poll, which was released on opening day of Orange Empire Conference play.

Golden West was 4-0 in pre-conference play and opened the OEC schedule with a 15-7 win against Riverside City on Wednesday. Eamon Hennessy led the Rustlers with nine goals during the pre-conference schedule.

The race for second in the Orange Empire Conference poll was fairly tight. Riverside ended up taking home two second place votes to finish second in the voting. Saddleback College edged Orange Coast College for third place in the voting while Cypress College was fifth and Fullerton College sixth.

RCC was busy during the pre-conference schedule, playing 10 games. The Tigers had a bit of a mixed bag when it comes to results, finishing 4-6 overall and 4-2 against California community colleges. Relja Mitic (29) and Louis Grandi (27) have led the Tigers in scoring so far during the season.

Saddleback was a surprise a season ago when they finished third at the state championships. The Bobcats have a lot of pieces to replace from that team but have fared well so far. Saddleback is 5-1 out of the gate after a win against Orange Coast (13-12) to start conference play on Wednesday. The lone loss was a 13-8 defeat against Golden West in a game where the Bobcats were even with the Rustlers nearing the end of the first half. Donald Robertson has been a force for Saddleback so far, scoring 26 goals in five games.

Just behind Saddleback in the voting was Orange Coast, who is off to a slow start so far. The Pirates have played a rugged schedule and have started 2-3 overall and 0-1 in OEC play, falling to Golden West, Saddleback and Los Angeles Valley College. Dane Howell leads the Pirates with 12 goals through five games.

Cypress and Fullerton were picked to finish fifth and sixth, respectively. Cypress has fared well so far, finishing 6-2 in the two tournaments they played. The Chargers start OEC play next Wednesday and Aydann Hambruch leads the team with 23 goals in eight games. Fullerton started the season 0-3-1, falling to three teams from Northern California. Matthew Dorado leads the Hornets with eight goals on the season.

1 Golden West (3) 18

2 Riverside City 14

3 Saddleback 11

4 Orange Coast 10

5 Cypress 7

6 Fullerton 3

Release by Brad Hoiseth