Cal Poly Honors Athletes of the Year for 2020-21 Academic Year
6/29/2021 11:21:00 AM | Baseball, General, Beach Volleyball, Wrestling
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SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- Cal Poly's No. 1 beach volleyball pair of Emily Sonny and Macy Gordon and two male student-athletes — baseball shortstop Brooks Lee and wrestler Bernie Truax — all of whom earned All-America honors during the 2020-21 academic year, have been selected as Cal Poly's female and male athletes of the year.
In addition, cross country and track and field standout John Bennett was named Cal Poly's Male Scholar-Athlete while the women's award was earned by golfer Elizabeth Scholtes.
The awards were announced Tuesday by Cal Poly director of athletics Don Oberhelman.
Emily Sonny (left) and Macy Gordon
Sonny and Gordon produced a team-best record of 23-10 on their way to being named AVCA First Team All-Americans and the Big West Pairs Team of the Year. They were ranked by collegebeachvb.com as the ninth-best pair in the country this year and won Big West Pair of the Week honors a conference-record four times. They end their careers as the second-winningest pair in program history with 39 career wins together.
A graduate of Arroyo Grande High School, Sonny finished her career as the all-time winningest player in program history with 101 career individual wins, the only Mustang to ever reach the 100-plus win mark. She also earned All-Conference First Team honors four times, the only Mustang to ever earn first-team nods all four years.
Gordon, who prepped at Xavier College Prep in Phoenix, Arizona, ended her Cal Poly career as the second-winningest player in program history right behind Sonny with 79 career individual wins. She also earned all-conference honors three times. Her 26 wins in 2019 are tied for the fourth-most wins in a single season in program history.
Sonny and Gordon helped lead Cal Poly to an historic season in 2021. The Mustangs won the program's first NCAA Championship match after beating Stanford 3-2, won 20-plus matches for the third time in program history after finishing with a 24-11 overall record, were ranked in the top 10 of the AVCA rankings the entire season, won their second straight Big West championship and were selected to their second NCAA Championship.
Brooks Lee
Lee hit a team-leading .342 with a school-record 27 doubles, three triples, 10 home runs and drove in 57 runs, all tops on the squad, en route to three All-America awards, Big West Conference Co-Field Player of the Year and Co-Freshman Field Player of the Year, a spot on the All-Big West first team, National Co-Freshman Player of the Year by Collegiate Baseball (along with four others) and ABCA/Rawlings All-West Region first team.
The San Luis Obispo High School graduate is one of six finalists for the Brooks Wallace Award as the nation's top shortstop. He also was a semifinalist for the Golden Spikes Award, presented to the player of the year, and also was one of three finalists for the ABCA/Rawlings Division I National Gold Glove Award at shortstop.
Lee has been invited to compete on the 2021 USA Baseball Collegiate National Team. He currently is playing summer ball for Yarmouth-Dennis in the Cape Cod League.
Truax became Cal Poly's first All-American wrestler since 2012 when he placed fourth at 174 pounds in the NCAA Division I National Championship last March in St. Louis. Truax won four of six matches, including two victories over the No. 5 seed and splitting a pair of matches against the fourth seed.
Bernie Truax
The Rancho Buena Vista High School graduate finished his redshirt sophomore year with a 13-3 record and his career mark stands at 45-21. Truax was the first Mustang to reach the semifinals since Boris Novachkov accomplished the feat en route to a second-place national finish in 2011.
He also is the first Cal Poly wrestler to earn All-America honors in competition since Novachkov (third place) and Ryan DesRoches (eighth place) were All-Americans in 2012. Tom Lane was named an All-American a year ago by the National Wrestling Coaches Association after the 2020 nationals were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Truax also qualified for the 2020 nationals in Minneapolis.
Other female athletes nominated for the Athlete of the Year award were track and field pole vaulter Brooke Tjerrild, basketball star Sierra Campisano, swimming and diving's Samantha Rankin, softball first baseman Hailey Martin, tennis sophomore Melissa LaMette and golfer Vanessa Wang.
Male athletes nominated for the award included basketball forward Alimamy Koroma, swimming and diving freestyler Kieran McNulty, men's tennis freshman Noah Berry and track and field distance/mid-distance runner Justin Robison.
Bennett and beach volleyball standout Tia Miric were named the Mustangs' Big West Conference Scholar-Athletes of the Year in March.
A mechanical engineering major, Bennett established three new career-best performances for track in 2021. The multi-time Dean's List honoree and Granada (Livermore) High School graduate set new personal records for the 5,000 meters (14 minutes, 26.75 seconds), 1,500 meters (3:51.62) and the 3,000m (8:18.48).
Bennett scored in two separate events at the 2021 Big West Championships, taking sixth place in both the 5,000 and 10,000 to tally a combined six points in the team standings. He has been on Cal Poly's Dean's List nine quarters, including seven with 4.0 grade-point averages.
Scholtes, a business administration major with concentrations in accounting and quantitative analysis, averaged 76.3 strokes over 24 rounds in her third season on the women's golf team, recording three top-20 finishes and four rounds of par or better.
Scholtes' top finish this year was a tie for eighth place in the season-opening Valley Invitational and the Alameda High School graduate helped Cal Poly win its second Big West Conference title in program history and a berth in the NCAA Stanford Regional.
She will carry a 75.59 career scoring average with 14 top-20 finishes and 14 rounds of par or better into her fourth season with the Mustangs. In the classroom, Scholtes has made the Dean's List all nine quarters, including five with 4.00 GPAs.
Cal Poly Athletes of the Year (Division I)
Male
2021 Bernie Truax Wrestling Brooks Lee Baseball
2020 J.J. Koski Football
2019 Joe Protheroe Football
2018 Swarnjit Boyal Cross Country/Track and Field
2017 Clayton Hutchins Cross Country
2016 Chase Minter Soccer
2015 Peter Van Gansen Baseball
2014 Chris Eversley Basketball
2013 Andre Dome Tennis
2012 Boris Novachkov Wrestling
2011 Shawn Lewis Basketball
2010 Chase Pami Wrestling
2009 Ramses Barden Football
2008 Chad Mendes Wrestling
2007 Phillip Reid Cross Country
2006 Chris Gocong Football
Travis Bertoni Golf
2005 Jordan Beck Football
2004 David Richardson Football
2003 Varnie Dennis Basketball
Tyrone Ward Track and Field
2002 Cedric Haymon Wrestling
2001 Chris Bjorklund Basketball
2000 Kaaron Conwright Track and Field
Craig Young Football
1999 David Wells Wrestling
1998 Kamil Loud Football
1997 Sean Brown Track and Field
1996 Alex Garwood Football
1995 Mike Fisher Football
Female
2021 Emily Sonny Beach Volleyball Macy Gordon Beach Volleyball
2020 Maia Dvoracek Volleyball
2019 Torrey Van Winden Volleyball
2018 Taylor Nelson Volleyball
2017 Sierra Hyland Softball
2016 Taylor Nelson Volleyball
2015 Elise Krieghoff Soccer
2014 Sierra Hyland Softball
2013 Laura Hollander Cross Country, Track and Field
2012 Kristina Santiago Basketball
2011 Rachel Clancy Basketball
2010 Kristina Santiago Basketball
2009 Melissa Pura Softball
2008 Sharon Day Soccer, Track and Field
2007 Lisa Modglin Softball
2006 Sierra Simmons Soccer
2005 Sharon Day Soccer, Track and Field
2004 Kaylene Wagner Track and Field
2003 Stephanie Brown Track and Field
2002 Worthy Lein Volleyball
2001 Melanie Hathaway Volleyball
2000 Kari Desoto Volleyball
1999 Paula Serrano Track and Field
1998 Desarie Knipfer Softball
1997 Desarie Knipfer Softball
1996 Erica Ahmann Track and Field
1995 Erica Ahmann Track and Field
Cal Poly Athletes of the Year (Division I)
