CLA Athletes Honored at Big West Conference
Below is a list of Cal Poly student-athletes from the College of Liberal Arts who earned Big West Conference all-academic honors for Winter and Spring Quarters.
In order to be eligible for the honor, a student-athlete must maintain a 3.00 cumulative grade-point average or above at Cal Poly and participate in at least 50 percent of his or her team’s events.
- Miranda Daschian: 3.783, Sr. Psychology, Atascadero, CA (Women’s Track and Field)
- Chase Worthen: 3.545, Jr. Psychology, Sacramento, CA (Women’s Track and Field)
- Macy Gordon: 3.406, So. Psychology, Paradise Valley, AZ (Beach Volleyball)
- Alexander Stater: 3.320, So. Psychology, Bethesda, MD (Men’s Tennis)
- Sydney James: 3.588, Sr. Psychology, San Diego, CA (Softball)
- Sarah Wulff: 3.834, So. Psychology, Atascadero, CA (Softball)
- Abibat Rahman-Davies: 3.817, Jr. Political Science, Rancho Cucamonga, CA (Women’s Track and Field)
- Stephanie Best: 3.345, Jr. Communication Studies, Palos Verdes Estates, CA (Softball)
- Katie Nunnelley: 3.742, Sr. Sociology, Redding, CA (Women’s Basketball)
- Sean McDermott: 3.071, Sr. Philosophy, Kings Beach, CA (Men’s Track and Field)
- Josh Ortlip: 3.211, Sr. English, Irvine, CA (Men’s Tennis)
- Michaele Barros: 3.008, Jr. Journalism, Fortuna, CA (Women’s Track and Field)
- Allison Scranton: 3.270, Sr. Child Development, Petaluma, CA (Women’s Track and Field)
- Sierra Brill: 3.364, So. Art and Design, San Francisco, CA (Women’s Track and Field)
Josh Ortlip (Men's Tennis/English)
Josh Ortlip was named First Team All-Big West Conference in both singles and doubles this past season to help lead the men’s tennis program to its fifth straight Big West Tournament championship match.
Ortlip finished a team-best 14-7 in dual matches, all at the No. 1 spot. He was named Big West Men's Tennis Athlete of the Week twice to give him five for his career, good for sixth-most all-time in conference history.
For his career, he is eighth in program history in career dual-match singles winning percentage and eighth all-time in combined career singles and doubles dual match winning percentage.
For Ortlip, an English major, it was the second straight year that he was named to the All-Conference First-Team and the third time in his career he made an all-conference team.
Macy Gordon (Beach Volleyball/Psychology)
Macy Gordon, who was one-half of Cal Poly beach volleyball’s No. 2 duo along with Emily Sonny, was named First-Team All-Big West Conference this past season.
Gordon and Sonny finished the season with a 16-4 record, the best winning percentage on the team by any pair that played at least 10 matches together.
In addition, Gordon and Sonny were ranked as the eighth-best No. 2 pairing in the country this past season by collegebeachvb.com
With Gordon, a Psychology major, Cal Poly won its first Big West Conference Championship and reached its first NCAA Championship.
Miranda Daschian (Track & Field/Psychology)
Cal Poly senior Miranda Daschian opened the NCAA Prelim Round of the Track & Field Championships for Cal Poly on May 23 by taking 33rd place in the women's 1,500 meters (eighth in Heat 4 in Sacramento, at 4:26.85).
A Psychology major (with a minor in Ethnic Studies), Daschian — who has earned Dean’s List honors every quarter at Cal Poly — is scheduled to graduate Summa cum laude this upcoming December. Daschian, who scored a team-high 20 points at the Big West Championships, became the conference's first woman to win both the 5,000- and 10,000-meter titles in seven years (since UC Davis’ Sarah Sumpter in 2012).
She is now the Big West’s 10th runner ever to win both conference titles in the same year. In addition, Daschian was selected as Big West Track Athlete of the Week on March 26 following her meet-record 1,500-meter time of 4:25.01 at the Cal Poly ShareSLO Invitational.
Announced as the Mustangs’ 2019 Big West Conference Scholar-Athlete of the Year alongside 16 fellow recipients representing eight peer universities chosen from a total of nearly 2,500 student-athletes, Daschian was presented the award at a banquet hosted by Marriott Suites in Garden Grove on March 14.
Abibat Rahman-Davies (Track & Field/Political Science)
Cal Poly junior Abibat Rahman-Davies almost advanced to the NCAA Track & Field Women's Triple Jump Final, taking 14th place in the National Championship Prelim Round by earning a career-best mark of 41 feet, 11.5 inches in Sacramento on May 25.
A Political Science major from Rancho Cucamonga, Rahman-Davies was only two spots back of advancing to Texas while improving her No. 4 ranking in school history for the event.
Rahman-Davies defended her conference title on May 11, winning the championship with a mark of 41 feet, 8.75 inches, becoming the Big West’s third woman in 36 years to repeat as a back-to-back triple jump champ.
The first woman to win two straight Big West crowns for the event in 14 years, Rahman-Davies was selected as the Coca-Cola Cal Poly Student-Athlete of the Week for May 28. A 2019 Big West Conference Spring All-Academic Team honoree, Rahman-Davies also earned back-to-back U.S. Track & Field/Cross Country Coaches Association Scholar-Athlete honors for 2018-19.