Cornejo, Walter Sweep Big West Track Athlete of the Week Awards
4/8/2025 3:35:00 PM | Track and Field
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — After a stellar showing by the Mustang track and field program over the weekend, Cal Poly swept the Big West Track Athlete of the Week awards.
Junior Tatiana Cornejo was named Big West Women’s Track Athlete of the Week for the second time in her career, while graduate student Chase Walter was crowned Big West Men’s Track Athlete of the Week for the first time.
This is the first time since April 30, 2024, that Cal Poly has swept the Big West Track Athlete of the Week awards and the eighth time overall.
The accolades come as no surprise after Cornejo and Walter both had sensational performances at the Stanford Invitational.
This past Friday, Cornejo shattered a 42-year-old school record in the women’s 5,000-meter, running a nearly 10-second lifetime best of 15:44.59 to surpass Amy Harper’s 1983 school record (15:50.64) by over six seconds. It was the first race for Cornejo this track season and the time is currently the 14th fastest ran in the West Region this season and the 19th fastest in the country. Last year, Cornejo became the Cal Poly athlete ever to win the Big West Women's Track Athlete of the Year award after becoming the first Mustang to sweep the conference titles in the women's 800 and 1,500. She qualified for the NCAA West Preliminaries in the 5,000 in 2024 and all but secured her ticket to the meet again with her performance at Stanford on Friday.
Earlier in the day Friday, Walter dropped a lifetime best in the men’s 400 of 46.07 seconds, the second fastest in school history and the fastest time by a Mustang in 44 years. Walter’s time ranks No. 10 in the West Region and No. 19 in the nation. Walter also ran the second leg on Cal Poly’s first-place 4x400 relay at the Stanford Invitational which posted a time of 3:09.06, the third fastest in school history. Earlier this season, the Laguna Niguel, Calif. native ran the ninth-fastest 800-meter time in program history (1:50.17) and during the indoor season shattered school records in the indoor 400 and 600.
Cornejo and Walter are two of seven Mustangs that currently own top 20 marks in Division I in their respective events, joining Lexi Evans (No. 6, women’s pole vault), Travis Martin (No. 8, men’s hammer throw), Rory Devaney (No. 14, men’s hammer throw), Colby Neron (No. 16, men’s javelin) and Bryce Kueker (No. 19, men’s steeplechase).
Cal Poly track and field returns to action next week to compete in a slew of meets in Southern California — the Bryan Clay Invitational on April 16-18, the Mt. SAC Relays on April 17-19, the Leopard Invitational on April 17-18 and the Beach Invitational on April 18-19.
