According to a report from The Student Life, the Claremont Colleges’ student newspaper, the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men’s and women’s track teams have been suspended pending a university investigation into a nude theft attempt that went sideways. A police report from last weekend indicates that six students were “running nude around the campus” around 9:15 p.m., and that the group apparently stole a photo from inside Pomona College’s rec center after “[attacking] another student” and holding him down when he tried to alert authorities.
Pomona is part of the five-college consortium that forms the Claremont Colleges, along with Pitzer, Harvey Mudd, Claremont McKenna, and Scripps. Students from Claremont McKenna, Harvey Mudd, and Scripps form the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps team, and they are rivals with the Pomona-Pitzer team. No arrests have been made, but Claremont authorities confirmed that the CMS team will be suspended as the school and team conduct investigations.
The photo apparently has yet to be returned, and The Student Life reports that the theft is part of an initiation ritual for male CMS athletes. The suspensions of 114 CMS athletes comes right as the college track season is beginning, and it’s unclear whether anyone will be cleared to run in a meet scheduled for this weekend.