Cal Poly to Induct Seven into Athletics Hall of Fame
7/29/2024 4:06:00 PM | General
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — Cal Poly will induct seven former Mustang student-athletes — including a pair of Buck Buchanan Award winners in football and pitchers from both the baseball and softball programs — into the Cal Poly Athletics Hall of Fame in November.
The 2024 class of inductees -- football linebackers Jordan Beck and Kyle Shotwell, men’s golfer Travis Bertoni, men’s basketball standout Mike Wozniak, women’s swimmer Traci Granger and pitchers Casey Bloomquist (baseball) and Sierra Hyland (softball) -- will be inducted Friday, Nov. 8, inside the Recreation Center's Multi-Activity Center, starting at 6 p.m. The group also will be honored at halftime of Cal Poly's Hall of Fame football game against Northern Arizona on Saturday, Nov. 9. Kickoff from Mustang Memorial Field at Spanos Stadium is set for 5 p.m.
The seven inductees, announced this week by Mustang Director of Athletics Don Oberhelman, raises the total number of inductees to 153 individuals, a track and field relay foursome and the 1960 football team.
The 2024 Hall of Fame inductees (in alphabetical order):
Jordan Beck (Football, 2001-04, Linebacker)
Beck was the first of three consecutive Buck Buchanan Award winners (FCS Defensive Player of the Year) for Cal Poly after notching 135 tackles in his senior season (2004), a school record at the time. He also had four interceptions, 18.5 tackles for lost yardage, 5.5 sacks and nine pass breakups.
Beck’s 449 career tackles remains as the school record and he was the only player in Cal Poly football history to lead his team in tackles all four years until Matt Shotwell accomplished the same feat from 2018-21.
As a senior, Beck was a first-team All-Great West Football Conference linebacker and the league’s defensive player of year. He was named first-team All-America by four outlets, including the American Football Coaches Association and the Walter Camp Foundation, and finished first in the nation (FCS) in solo tackles and forced fumbles, fourth in total tackles and eighth in tackles for lost yardage.
Beck, who played in the 2005 East-West Shrine Game at SBC Park in San Francisco, recorded a school-record 23 tackles in a game at Montana in 2003, and also had 22 tackles at Eastern Washington in 2004. He recorded double-digit tackles 24 times in 43 career games.
Twice Beck returned fumbles for a touchdown in his Cal Poly career and all four of his career interceptions were in his senior season, returning two for touchdowns. He was drafted in the third round by the Atlanta Falcons in 2005 and, after missing the entire 2005 season due to injury, played in 15 games for the Falcons in 2006 (13 tackles) and 11 more for the Denver Broncos in 2007 (10 tackles).
Beck lives in Greeley, Colo., and is an an active investor in real estate in Northern Colorado, partnering with Herbies Homes and One Way Property Management.
Travis Bertoni (Men’s Golf, 2002-06)
Bertoni earned 11 career victories at Cal Poly, which at the time was the national record. He captured the 2005 Big West Conference individual title and compiled a 71.7 scoring average over 132 career rounds, still the school record, and finished with 37 top-20 finishes, 28 top-10 finishes, 81 rounds of par or better and 38 rounds in the 60s.
Bertoni also holds the school single-season scoring average of 70.8 as a junior and 61.4 percent of his career rounds were par or better. He is No. 4 in the school record book with his pair of 65s, No. 2 with his 132 for 36 holes in a tournament in the Spring of 2003 (third with 133 in a Fall 2004 tournament) and No. 3 with 204 totals for 54 holes (accomplished four times).
Bertoni played in one PGA Tour event, the U.S. Open in 2008, at Torrey Pines, and missed the cut following rounds of 82 and 73. He played on the Korn Ferry Tour (formerly Nationwide Tour) from 2010 through 2016, earning two second-place finishes, one third, eight top-10 and 22 top-25 finishes in 111 career events. Bertoni earned $450,638 and made the cut 60 times in his professional career and also competed on the National Golf Association’s Hooters Tour.
Bertoni, a 2002 Paso Robles High School graduate who was team MVP three times and Los Padres League individual champion in 2001 and runner-up in 2002, currently works for an Atascadero golf cart company that sells all brands and custom-made vehicles.
Bertoni was Cal Poly’s Male Athlete of the Year in 2006 and a two-time NCAA/PING All-American. He was inducted into the Paso Robles High School Hall of Fame in 2014 and currently works for 777 Golf Carts & Rentals in Atascadero.
Casey Bloomquist (Baseball, 2013-15)
A 2014 NCAA first-team All-American, Bloomquist posted a 26-6 career win-loss record, which included a 12-2 mark on Cal Poly’s best Division I team, capturing the Big West title and hosting an NCAA regional while finishing 47-12, a school record for wins in a season.
A graduate of Bakersfield Christian High School, Bloomquist currently holds the school record for lowest ERA in a season (minimum 20 innings pitched) at 1.56 over 98 innings and is tied for second for most wins in a season (12). He is fifth in career ERA (2.79), third in career wins (26) and sixth in fewest walks allowed per nine-inning game (2.25). Following the end of his playing career in 2018, Bloomquist was a coach in the Cubs’ minor league system from 2019-20.
Bloomquist was drafted by the Chicago Cubs in the 17th round in 2015 and played for five teams in four minor league seasons, reaching as high as Double-A. He won 16 games and finished with a 3.93 ERA in his professional career, pitching in 98 games
A 2020 graduate of Cal Poly with a bachelor of science degree in Agricultural Business and Management, Bloomquist is a key account manager at Germains Seed Technology, a worldwide company providing the best seed technology solutions for their customers’ needs, and formerly was an assistant ranch manager for Grimmway Farms in Bakersfield.
Traci Serpa Granger (Swimming, 1978-80)
An AIAW Division II National Champion and All-American in the women's 200 and 400 medley relays in 1980, Granger broke countless individual and relay school records during her Cal Poly career from 1978-80 and was a team captain. She served as head coach for the Cal Poly swimming and diving program during the 1984-85 season.
Granger, widely regarded as one of the fastest swimmers in the world in her age group, has had a decorated Masters swimming career both nationally and internationally. She has won a number of U.S. Masters Swimming national titles, including claiming five short course championships this June in Indianapolis and eight in the 65-69 age group at last year’s spring nationals.
Granger is the current world record holder in the women’s 50-meter butterfly in two age groups — the 60-64 age group (short course) and 65-69 age group (long course).
She has earned numerous FINA World Championships over her illustrious career in the pool, including four at the 19th World Aquatics Masters Championships in Japan last August in the in the 50 free, 100 free, 50 fly and 100 fly. She currently holds six American records across several age groups and has set 19 during her swimming career.
A 1980 Cal Poly grad with her bachelor’s in physical education, Granger is a multiple-time Pan-American champion and still owns a handful of Pan-American records to this day.
The first woman from the Cal Poly swimming and diving program to be inducted into the Cal Poly Hall of Fame, Granger rejoined the Cal Poly coaching staff as an assistant in 2022 and is entering her third season assisting the program in 2024-25. She also currently teaches lessons at the Avila Bay Athletic Club.
Granger started her collegiate swimming career at College of the Sequoias from 1976-78, where she set multiple records and was a two-time Most Valuable Female Student-Athlete of the Year. Granger, a former Cal Poly professor, taught Kinesiology at El Camino College in Torrance for 35 years and was the associate head coach for the school’s swimming and diving program for 20 years. While earning her master’s in education administration with an emphasis in athletic administration from Colorado State, Granger served as the women’s assistant swim coach for two years and mentored several Olympians before returning to Cal Poly in 1984 to lead the Mustangs’ program. From 1986-88, she was also the associate athletic director of women’s sports at UCLA.
Sierra Hyland (Softball, 2014-17)
Hyland, the Big West Conference all-time strikeout leader (965), tossed three perfect games and three no-hitters in her Mustang career. She was a 2017 NFCA All-America second-team honoree (just the third player in Cal Poly’s Division I history) and the only four-time NFCA All-Region selection in program history. Hyland is the first and only Olympian in softball program history, competing for the Mexico Women’s National Team, which placed fourth at the 2021 Tokyo Games.
In Big West history, Hyland ranks co-first all-time for appearances (161), third for innings pitched (942.2) and sixth for victories (82). Also Cal Poly’s all-time leader for shutouts (38), starts (122), complete games (104) and saves (six).
Offensively at Cal Poly, Hyland remains second in program history with 127 RBI, third with 303 total bases, fourth with 208 hits, fifth with 16 homers, 631 at-bats and 39 doubles, sixth with a .480 slugging percentage and ninth with a .330 batting average.
She set the Big West all-time record (any sport) with 18 career Player of the Week honors.
Hyland helped Cal Poly to a 38-win season as a senior in 2017 (third highest Division I total that includes a victory against eventual WCWS winner Oklahoma), a No. 25 national ranking in the NFCA Coaches Poll and a fourth-place showing in the inaugural National Invitational Softball Championship (throwing a perfect game on the final day of her career).
Hyland, who twice was the winning pitcher against perennial national power Oklahoma in her career, was the No. 4 overall selection in the 2017 National Pro Fastpitch Draft. She currently plays for the Smash It Sports Vipers of Women’s Professional Fastpitch after playing for Chicago and Cleveland in the NPF.
Hyland earned her bachelor’s degree in Graphic Communications at Cal Poly in 2018, served as a volunteer assistant coach of the Mustangs and currently is a pitching instructor for The Yard, a sports performance training facility in Santa Maria. She enjoys passing on her knowledge of the game to younger generations of softball lovers.
Kyle Shotwell (Football, 2003-06, Linebacker)
Shotwell followed Jordan Beck and Chris Gocong as Buck Buchanan Award winners, earning the honor in 2006 after notching 122 total tackles, including seven sacks. He broke the school record for tackles in a season with 158 in 2005, a mark that was broken by Nick Dzubnar in 2014.
Shotwell earned 4.0 sacks against San Diego State in 2006, No. 2 in the record book for a single game. His 158 tackles in 2005 is No. 2 and his 122 stops in 2006 is No. 6. Shotwell’s 392 career tackles are No. 3. He notched 20 tackles against Texas State in 2005, No. 3 in the record book, and recorded double-digit tackles in 24 of his 46 career games.
Shotwell earned first-team All-Great West Football Conference honors in both 2005 and 2006 and was named GWFC Defensive Player of the Year in 2006. He also was named first- and second-team All-American in both 2005 and 2006.
Shotwell played in the 2007 East-West Shrine Game in Houston and was the game’s leading tackler with seven, earning the Pat Tillman Award. Undrafted in 2007, he was signed as a free agent by the Oakland Raiders in 2007 and Indianapolis Colts in 2008 and also served on practice squads for the Philadelphia Eagles, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Kansas City Chiefs, but never played a game in the regular season.
Shotwell appeared in all 46 games the Mustangs played in his Cal Poly career, including 35 consecutive starts in his final three seasons. He scored his only touchdown as a Mustang in the final game of his career in 2006, returning a lateraled interception 65 yards. Shotwell finished in the top 25 in the nation in numerous statistical categories and led the Great West Football Conference with 1.91 tackles for lost yardage per game and 11.09 total tackles per contest in 2006.
Formerly working in sales for several technology companies in Texas, Shotwell currently is director of athletics and communications manager for Regents School of Austin.
Mike Wozniak (Men’s Basketball, 1996-2000)
In Cal Poly program history, Wozniak remains the all-time leader for three-pointers (308), ranks second in total points (1,903), fifth in free throw percentage (.860), sixth in points per game (16.9) and steals (126), ninth in field goals (464) and 10th in appearances (112).
He set the Cal Poly single-season free throw mark in 1997-98 (now third) with an 89.0 percent mark. His 548 points that year rank as the sixth-highest total. The 1997 Big West Freshman of the Year selection was a three-time All-Big West honoree and a member of the 1996-97 Big West All-Freshman Team.
In single-season history, Wozniak owns four of the top seven marks for three-pointers attempted, three of the top seven for three-pointers converted and two of the top seven for free throw percentage.
Wozniak is an analyst for Compass Media Networks’ college basketball broadcasts in the Big Ten and Atlantic Coast conferences and also broadcasts for regional radio and television outlets. He also founded and coaches for 3Ball, a youth basketball club, in San Luis Obispo.
