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SUMMER 2018 1

A Champion for Others 30Athletics have always been important to Justin Dunn and are a big part of his family’s connections to Cal, which span four generations. And while his Golden Bear rugby career was relatively brief, he excelled as a first-team All-American in 7s this past spring. He also prioritized academics and service to the commu-nity, earning the 2018 Haas Community Service Award.

Bay Area Advantage 32With Cal located in the heart of the dynamic Bay Area, Golden Bear student-athletes are seizing a unique opportunity thanks to a program within the Cal Student-Ath-lete Development office that is designed to give them an up-close look at business-es. To date, field trips have taken them to the Pac-12 Networks and a pair of highly successful Silicon Valley firms.

Letter from the Director of Athletics .........................................2

Sideline Report .......................................................................4

Season Reviews .................................................................... 18

Student-Athlete Development ............................................... 22

Where Are They Now? ........................................................... 28

Academic Achievement ......................................................... 35

More Than a Name 12Natan Wegrzycki-Szymczyk may have a challenging name to pronounce, but the bigger challenge is finding a way to slow him down in the water. The three-time Pac-12 Men’s Rowing Athlete of the Year is one of the most accomplished rowers ever to wear the Blue & Gold, and he was equally accomplished in the classroom, earning Pac-12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year recognition.

A Whole New Role 16Even during a moment when some self- indulgence could be excused, Teya Neff still couldn’t help but think of others. The recently graduated Cal beach volleyball standout suffered a broken elbow while roller blading last winter, immediately wip-ing out her senior season. Neff knew right away her college career had just ended, but her first thoughts turned to others.

Betty Pacheco Creates Endowments 22Having devoted her life as a public ser-vant to the youth of her community, Betty Pacheco has made amazing finan-cial contributions to the well-being of the Cal community with the creation of four endowments, one each to support wom-en’s basketball, field hockey, the library and biological sciences. Her story begin on the family ranch in Hayward.

FEATURES

Working in Sync 10A unique class took shape this past spring inside the northwest corner of California Memorial Stadium. Students from such ma-jors as engineering and computer science worked in teams with student-athletes in a course titled a Sports Tech Collider Sprint with a common goal to find technological and innovative ways to create competitive advantages for athletes and sports teams. The results were both amazing and, to a large extent, expected.

ON THE COVER

SPORTSQUARTERLY

SUMMER 2018

DEPARTMENTS

CONTENTS

2 CAL SPORTS QUARTERLY

Dear Friend of Cal Athletics:

As I move through my second month as your athletic director, I con-tinue to learn every day about the passion and commitment for Cal Athletics and this University. The level of investment extends from student-athletes and their coaches through our staff, alumni,

and the campus administration and faculty, as well as all of our corpo-rate partners.

Much of my time these first several weeks has been spent on what I call Listening Days. These are opportunities for me to get to know every aspect of our Cal Athletics community, what characteristics are

most important and where I can lend support to help us be exceptional. I have been most impressed by the people who care so deeply about Cal and all it has to offer.

While my current emphasis is on the future and developing plans for the upcoming school year and beyond, the summer months do provide us with time to look back on many of the successes from 2017-18. This page does not allow me to list all of them, but here are several of our more notable awards:

z Eight teams finished among the top three in the country, led by an NCAA team championship in women’s rowing

z Individually, swimmer Kathleen Baker earned an NCAA title and set an American record in the 200-yard backstroke, while women’s rowing produced victories in the varsity eight and varsity four boats

z Two national athletes of the year in Luca Cupido from men’s water polo and Andrew Vaughn of baseball

z Two Pac-12 coaches of the year in men’s golf’s Walter Chun and men’s swimming & diving’s David Durden

z Three Golden Bears named Pac-12 Scholar Athlete of the Year for their respective sports – Matt Anderson (football), Aravind Sivakumar (men’s soccer) and Natan Wegrzycki-Szymczyk (men’s rowing)

z Six student-athletes named conference player of the year and 25 individual event conference champions

I am also proud to share that our student-athletes completed an incredible spring semes-ter with a term GPA of 3.084. A total of 22 programs were above a 3.0, with men’s soccer posting the highest among our men’s teams with a 3.301 GPA and women’s swimming & diving leading the entire department with a 3.49 GPA.

In addition to outstanding academic and athletic achievements, the pages of this issue of the Cal Sports Quarterly highlight other noteworthy characteristics of our student-athletes – giving back to the community, pursuing graduate level work after earning their degrees and finding unique opportunities to engage on campus that are perhaps available only at Cal.

We also feature Betty Pacheco, a two-sport athlete as an undergraduate who found inspiration in learning. She recently created four endowments to support multiple areas of our university, and Betty’s life story is but one example of what can be possible through access to education through sports.

I believe in our scholar-athletes. And I believe in winning the right way in order to provide the best developmental experience possible for our student-athletes. Ultimately, that is our purpose in intercollegiate athletics. As a department, we may face chal-lenges ahead, but my optimism remains high and nothing I have seen or heard discourages me from what is possible.

Go Bears,

Jim Knowlton

Director of Athletics

LETTER from Director of Athletics Jim Knowlton

ISSUE 64 – SUMMER 2018

ATHLETIC ADMINISTRATION

DIRECTOR OF ATHLETICS:Jim Knowlton

DIRECTOR’S CABINET:Herb Benenson, Ryan Cobb, Josh Hummel, Jay Larson, Foti Mellis, Andrew McGraw, Joe Mulford, David Secor, Jenny Simon-O’Neill,

Derek Van Rheenen, Beth Voetsch

EDITORIAL STAFF349 Haas Pavilion

Berkeley, CA 94720

EDITOR:Herb Benenson

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS:MC Barrett, Dean Caparaz, Ben Enos, Akilah

Laster, Anton Malko, Kyle McRae, Tim Miguel, Jonathan Okanes, Jared Prescott,

Mara Rudolph

DESIGN:Evan Kerr

PHOTOGRAPHY:Kelley Cox (klcphotos.com/calbears), Al

Sermeno, Nathan Phillips, Catharyn Hayne, Robby Klein, Mike Wondolowski, Marcus

Edwards, Evan Kerr, Tim Binning, among others

ATHLETIC DEVELOPMENT OFFICE195 Haas Pavilion

Berkeley, CA 94720 (510) 642-2427

[email protected]

ATHLETIC TICKET OFFICE(800) GO BEARS

For daily updates on Cal Athletics, includ-ing schedules, press releases and player profiles, visit the department’s official website at CalBears.com.

ON THE COVERStudent-athletes Evan Rambo (left) and Cassidy Keelen (right) pose with Danielle Vivo and Stephen Torres inside the Sutard-ja Center, home of the Sports Tech Collider course that seeks engineering solutions to athletic problems. Photo by Kelley Cox (klcfotos.com/calbears).

SPORTSQUARTERLY

Andy McDowell Executive Director, Cal Bears Sports Properties

Cell: 510-643-4652 [email protected]

The Cal Sports Quarterly is published four times per year by the University of California Athletic Department.

AERIALCOVERAGE

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THE 2018 ROGUE SPORT®


Bears Bring Home National Title from NCAA Women’s Rowing Championships

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Neither rain nor a condensed racing schedule could de-ter the Cal women’s rowing team at the NCAA Champion-ships, as the Golden Bears captured the national title on a tense day in Sarasota, Fla., May 26.

Cal earned its second NCAA crown in three years and fourth in the history of the program. In addition to being atop the team standings, the Bears won national cham-pionships in the varsity eight and varsity four, and they were the runner-up in the second varsity eight.

“Everyone sees the glory day, but it’s been a long time coming – a lot of hard work,” said senior Mia Croonquist, seven-seat in the Bears’ gold medal-winning varsity eight. “This was a total team effort with everyone bought in and giving their all every day. We worked hard for this all year and for it to happen now is just surreal.”

With a threat from subtropical storm Alberto moving into the area, the NCAA put both the semifinals and fi-nals on the same day to stay ahead of the weather. The change didn’t seem to affect the Bears. Cal won the over-all team title with a total of 130 points, just ahead of runner-up Washington’s 128.

After Cal won the varsity eight race and UW took the second varsity eight, it all came down to the varsity four. The Bears and Huskies battled down the course, with Cal sprinting through the finish line less than a second ahead of Washington.

“I’m super proud of this team,” head coach Al Acosta said. “When you’re taking on really high-level competition like Washing-ton and Texas, you have to bring your best on the final day. Through the ups and downs of schedule changes and the emotions of an atmosphere like this, our student-athletes managed it all so well. They did a great job and we are really proud of the effort this team has put in all year long.”

Baseball’s Andrew Vaughn, Tanner Dodson Claim National Honors

Walter Chun Named Pac-12 Men’s Golf Coach of the Year

Natan Wegrzycki-Szymczyk Sweeps Pac-12 Rowing Honors

A year after earning consensus Freshman All-America honors last year, sophomore Andrew Vaughn followed up with a monster baseball season that has seen him collect a slew of national and conference honors.

Vaughn batted .402 for the Bears in 2018, knocking in 63 runs and tying the school record with 23 home runs. As a result, he won the Golden Spikes Award, was voted the National Player of the Year by

Perfect Game/Rawlings, the Pac-12 Player of the Year and a first-team All-American by Baseball America.

In addition, junior Tanner Dodson claimed second-team All-American accolades as one of the top two-way players in the coun-try. The Bears’ starting center fielder, he hit .320 with 40 runs scored and 27 RBI. On the mound, he also established himself as a premier closer, posting a 2-1 record with a 2.47 ERA and a Cal-record 11 saves.

Men’s rower Natan Wegrzycki-Szymczyk closed out his Golden Bear career by sweep-ing the Athlete of the Year and Scholar-Ath-lete of the Year awards from the Pac-12.

Wegrzycki-Szymczyk, who competed for his native Poland at the 2016 Olympics in Rio, becomes the first three-time recipient of the Pac-12 Athlete of the Year honor in the award’s 11-year history. In the class-

room, the sociology major posted a 3.695 GPA and sat on stage at the University commencement as a co-recipient of the Jake Gimbel Prize.

Wegrzycki-Szymczyk is one of three Golden Bears to be chosen Pac-12 Schol-ar-Athletes of the Year in 2017-18, join-ing Matt Anderson (football) and Aravind Sivakumar (men’s soccer).

Walter Chun has been associated with the Cal men’s golf program for 21 seasons since he began his career as freshman in 1997. Now in his second year as the Alex and Marie Shipman Director of Men’s Golf, he has been chosen by his peers as the 2018 Pac-12 Coach of the Year.

During the most recent campaign, Chun’s Bears were ranked in the nation’s top 10 most of the season with a squad

led by Golfweek National Player of the Year and All-American Collin Morikawa, who broke the all-time single-season NCAA record with a 68.68 stroke average. Cal won three times, including a signature vic-tory against one of the top fields in the country at the Tavistock Collegiate Invita-tional. The Bears were also winners at the Alister MacKenzie Invitational and Wyoming Desert Intercollegiate.

The Golden Bears celebrate their second NCAA title in the past three years.

Walter Chun

Natan Wegrzycki-Szymczyk

Andrew Vaughn

SUMMER 2018 5

Hall of Fame Class of 2018 to Be Inducted Oct. 26

Leon Powe

Alysia Montaño

Kristina Thorson

Elsie (Windes) Wenger

Joe Starkey

Ramón Jiménez Gaona

Duje Draganja

Geoff McArthur

Valerie McClain

Teri McKeever

The numbers in the Cal Athletic Hall of Fame will grow by 10 this fall with the enshrinement of the 33rd class of inductees on Friday, Oct. 26.

The new group features Olympians, All-Americans, a legendary coach and the longtime voice of Cal football. Following the induction ceremony, the class will be introduced on the field the following day during Cal’s football game against Washington at California Memorial Stadium. For information on the tickets to the induction banquet, visit bigcsociety.org.

Those who have been newly elected into the Hall of Fame are:

DUJE DRAGANJA (men’s swimming, 2002-05) – three-time Olympian and eight-time NCAA champion who won a silver medal in the 50-meter free for Cro-atia in 2004

RAMÓN JIMÉNEZ GAONA (men’s track & field, 1990-93) – three-time Olympi-an and school-record holder in the discus (210-11) who was a three-time NCAA runner-up in the event

GEOFF MCARTHUR (football, 2000-04) – set five school receiving records and two Big Game marks and earned All-America honors as a junior in 2003

VALERIE MCCLAIN (men’s and women’s rowing, 1978-82) – two-time Olympi-an and a pioneering coxswain who earned letters for both the men’s and wom-en’s rowing programs

TERI MCKEEVER (women’s swimming & diving head coach, 1992-present) – the 2012 U.S. Olympic head coach has guided Cal to four NCAA team championships and 10 consecutive top-3 national finishes

ALYSIA MONTAÑO (women’s track & field, 2004-08) – 2012 Olympian in the 800 meters won NCAA indoor and outdoor titles in the event and is a seven-time USA champion

LEON POWE (men’s basketball, 2004-06) – the 2004 Pac-10 Freshman of the Year was a two-time first-team all-conference pick and a second-team All-Ameri-can in 2006

KRISTINA THORSON (softball, 2003-06) – the first Golden Bear softball player named Pac-10 Pitcher of the Year and a three-time second-team All-American

ELSIE (WINDES) WENGER (women’s water polo, 2004-07) – three-time All- American helped the United States to two Olympic medals, including gold in 2012

JOE STARKEY (voice of Cal football, 1975-present), Service Award – the long-time radio voice of Cal football who enters his 44th year behind the microphone this fall

The induction at the Greek Orthodox Church Conference Center in Oakland is open to the public, and information on tickets can be found at bigcsociety.org. The Hall of Fame is located just outside the Field Club off Lisa and Douglas Goldman Plaza, and is open to all ticket holders following every home football game.

Scott Frandsen Tabbed to Lead Cal Men’s Rowing Program

A familiar face has taken the helm of the Cal men’s rowing program as Scott Frand-sen has agreed to succeed Mike Teti as head coach of the Golden Bears. Frandsen, a 2002 graduate of the Haas School of Business and three-time national champi-on as a student-athlete at Cal, is a three-time Olympian who has been a member of Bears’ staff since 2012, most recently as associate head coach.

“I’m excited for Cal men’s rowing that Scott Frandsen has agreed to become our new head coach after this season,” said Director of Athletics Jim Knowlton. “He is a proud Cal

alum with a long history of success as both a rower and a coach, and I’m confident that he will continue the tradition of excellence that is a hallmark of our program.”

“This program had a huge impact on my life and I look forward to continuing to facili-tate that challenging, formative experience for student-athletes to pursue excellence on the water and in the classroom,” Frand-sen said.

Frandsen, the 16th head coach in pro-gram history, replaces Teti, who takes over head coaching duties for the U.S. Men’s National Team.Scott Frandsen


2018 CALIFORNIA FOOTBALL SCHEDULE

Season, Partial Plan Football Tickets on Sale Now

Golden Bear fans, don’t miss UCLA, the 121st Big Game and other matchups on the gridiron this fall through a variety of ticket plans. Individual game tickets for Cal’s 2018 football season will go on sale in late July, with Cal Athletics donors, letterwinners and current season-ticket holders re-ceiving priority access to home and away games ahead of the general public. These select groups will receive “locked in” pricing that will not change during the course of the year. Single-game tickets for public sale will be subject to dynamic pricing that could increase based on a variety of factors.

Season-ticket and partial plans for the Bears’ fall campaign remain on sale, starting as low as $85 for youth and seniors.

For questions or more information, contact the Gold Standard ticketing team at (800) GO BEARS (462-3277) and press option 3, or visit CalBears.com/tickets.

The Cal men’s basketball season-ticket deposit list is officially open. To become a 2018-19 season ticket holder, simply place a $100 deposit for each seat. Your deposit will earn a seat selection time (date to be announced), which is offered on a first-come, first-served basis.

For questions or more information about men’s basketball tickets, please contact your Gold Standard service team at (800) GO BEARS (462-3277) and press option 3.

Choose Your Own Seat for Cal Men’s Basketball

Date Day Opponent Time TV

Sept. 1 Sat North Carolina 1:00 pm FOX

Sept. 8 Sat at BYU 7:15 pm PT ESPN2 or ESPNU

Sept. 15 Sat Idaho State 3:00 pm Pac-12 Bay Area

Sept. 29 Sat Oregon TBA TBA

Oct. 6 Sat at Arizona TBA TBA

Oct. 13 Sat UCLA TBA TBA

Oct. 20 Sat at Oregon State TBA TBA

Oct. 27 Sat Washington TBA TBA

Nov. 3 Sat at Washington State TBA TBA

Nov. 10 Sat at USC TBA TBA

Nov. 17 Sat Stanford TBA TBA

Nov. 24 Sat Colorado TBA TBA

Note: Kickoff times and television networks for games listed as TBA will be announced by the Pac-12 either 12 or 6 days in advance; all games broad-cast on KGO Radio (AM 810)

Senior linebacker Jordan Kunaszyk is expected to be a leader on defense for the Bears this fall.

Darius McNeill set a Cal freshman record with 67 3-pointers last season.

Groups, Single-Game and Away-Game Ticket On-Sale DatesMonday, July 23 at 9 a.m. – ESP participants and season-ticket holders (MBB/

WBB/FB/VB) who are donors at the $10,000+ levelMonday, July 23 at 12 noon – Season-ticket holders (MBB/WBB/FB/VB) who

are donors at the $1,200+ levelTuesday, July 24 at 9 a.m. – Season-ticket holders (MBB/WBB/FB/VB), Cal

Athletics letterwinners and donors at the $5,000 level who are not season-ticket holders

Wednesday, July 25 at 9 a.m. – General public

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Nick Hamilton

Aravind Sivakumar

Ashten Smith-Gooden

C.J. West

Luca Cupido

Golden Bear Team AwardHighest Cumulative GPA

Women’s Swimming & Diving

Big C Most Improved Team AwardMost Improved Team GPA

Women’s Basketball

Tom Hansen Conference MedalOutstanding Senior Student-Athletes

Male – Luca Cupido (men’s water polo)Female – Emily Boyd (women’s soccer)

Neufeld Scholar-Athlete AwardHighest GPA among

Graduating Student-AthletesMale – Aravind Sivakumar (men’s soccer)Female – Amelia Sadler (women’s rowing)

Oscar Geballe Postgraduate Scholarship$10,000 Awards for Graduate Work

Asha Culhane-Husain (women’s track & field)

Nick Hamilton (men’s basketball)

Pac-12 Postgraduate Scholarship$9,000 Awards for Graduate Work

Natan Wegrzycki-Szymcyzk (men’s rowing)Courtney Hendrickson (field hockey)

Jake Gimbel Prize and Anna Espenschade Award

Exemplifying Golden Bear SpiritMale – Natan Wegrzycki-Szymcyzk

(men’s rowing), Nick Hamilton (men’s basketball)

Female – Teya Neff (beach volleyball)

Golden Bears Honored for Excellence at Academic LuncheonAt the close of the academic year, the Athletic Study Center held its annual Academic

Honors Luncheon, honoring the remarkable accomplishments by Cal student-athletes in the classroom, in the community and in the playing arena.

Nick Hamilton, a double major in media studies and legal studies from the men’s bas-ketball team, provided the keynote address before a crowd of fellow student-athletes, coaches, staff, professors and members of the university administration.

“I know that my experience at Cal has prepared me for whatever I choose,” Hamilton said. “Everyone here today is the creator of their own destiny. We have all been successful here at Cal because of our integrity, trustworthiness, honesty and loyalty. Whatever dream you decide to pursue in your life, you can do it. It will take an incredible amount of work, but you have to decide to make it, not anyone in this room, but you. Everyone in this room will decide their own future.”

Golden Bear Achievement AwardsHighest GPA on Each TeamBaseball Connor Jackson EconomicsMen’s Basketball Nick Hamilton Media Studies & Legal StudiesWomen’s Basketball Chen Yue StatisticsBeach Volleyball Teya Neff Social WelfareMen’s Cross Country Kai Benedict Nutritional Science & TechnologyWomen’s Cross Country Chloe Hansel Environmental SciencesField Hockey Janaye Sakkas Cognitive ScienceFootball Henry Bazakas Business AdministrationMen’s Golf Collin Morikawa Business AdministrationWomen’s Golf Maria Herraez Galvez PhysicsMen’s Gymnastics Roshan Toopal BioengineeringWomen’s Gymnastics Arianna Robinson American StudiesLacrosse Ella Annest Intended Integrative BiologyMen’s Rowing Natan Wegrzycki-Szymczyk SociologyWomen’s Rowing Cubbie Kile Intended Business AdministrationRugby Tyler Douglas Business AdministrationMen’s Soccer Aravind Sivakumar Computer ScienceWomen’s Soccer Kayla Fong Intended Business AdministrationSoftball Kristen Cullen Public HealthMen’s Swimming & Diving Pawel Sendyk Intended Computer ScienceWomen’s Swimming & Diving Amy Bilquist Media StudiesMen’s Tennis Bjorn Hoffmann Intended Business AdministrationWomen’s Tennis Alexis Nelson Intended Business AdministrationMen’s Track & Field Ben Harper MusicWomen’s Track & Field Jayla Scholis SociologyVolleyball Antzela Dempi Business AdministrationMen’s Water Polo Gianni Taranto Political EconomyWomen’s Water Polo Mia Salvini Intended Public Health

Joseph McDonnell Kavanagh AwardExceptional Improvement in Academics

C.J. West (women’s basketball)

Walter A. Haas Jr. Community Service AwardContributions to Community ServiceAshten Smith-Gooden (volleyball)

Justin Dunn (rugby)

Jonathan and Judy Hoff Football Scholar-Athlete of the Year

Patrick Laird

Athletic Student Center Scholar-Athlete of the Year

Arianna Robinson (women’s gymnastics)


E arly in the spring of 2018, Evan Rambo, a legal studies major and a safety

for the Cal football team, got wind of a new course that promised a unique ex-perience for students on the Cal campus. The more he learned about the sub-ject, the more intrigued he became.

So when an academic advisor emailed the entire football team about the class, Rambo knew he had to act quickly if he wanted to secure a coveted spot on the roster.

“Let me make sure I get my interview in first and try to be one of the first appli-cants to actually get into the class,” Rambo thought. “It was something I really wanted to be a part of from the beginning.”

The course was titled a Sports Tech Collider Sprint and held at the Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship and Technolo-gy. Tucked inside the northwest corner of California Memorial Stadium and part of the College of Engineering, SCET describes itself as promoting the study and prac-tice of entrepreneurship and technology innovation.

In essence, the Sports Tech Collider Sprint brought together students from sci-ence, engineering, math and other similar majors with student-athletes of varying in-terests. Students were divided into teams of 3-5, each tasked with developing an idea that combined technology and innovation with a goal to create competitive advantag-es for athletes and sports teams.

“It was really interesting because you never know how a new class like this is going to come about,” said Stephen Torres, a faculty member in engineering who came up with the idea. “We’re for the first time taking some of our best, brightest science, technology, engineering, math students on campus and putting them in a classroom with some of our best student-athletes. That was kind of the hypothesis. And then giving them real challenges to see what

they could come up with. That was exciting as just a professor and a teacher and an educator.”

Torres still lights up every time he dis-cusses the Collider Sprint. His hope from the beginning was that enough students shared that enthusiasm.

“Just because I like sports, I like engi-neering things, and I’m an entrepreneur – that’s one thing,” Torres said. “But find-ing out if there’s enough of those types of folks on campus was a huge concern. Would engineers and science people and different majors even want to take a sports tech-focused class? Then there was also the trepidation of would student-athletes be interested in the entrepreneurial as-pects of business? Could we find enough students who would want to take this class who could do the academic rigor of the class, as well as produce?”

The results were, to use Torres’ word, amazing. Expecting maybe 15-20 students, more than 60 expressed interest and about 30 were eventually accepted following an application process that featured both

written responses to specific questions and an in-person interview. Under Armour even signed on as a sponsor.

“That really showed us that there was interest there and that it was something that everyone on campus could get be-hind,” Torres said. “It’s not just athletics. It’s not just academics. It’s really us work-ing in sync.”

Danielle Vivo, the SCET program manag-er, said the course attracted a wide range of students from different corners of cam-pus given the uniqueness of the topic. Among student-athletes, seven others took part in addition to Rambo – Carmen Annevelink (volleyball), Garrett Corcoran (men’s track & field), Danny Jordan (men’s rowing), Chase Forrest (football), Cassidy Keelen (women’s gymnastics), Archer Ol-son (women’s basketball) and Alonso Vera (football).

“You really brought two passions togeth-er,” Vivo said. “There were students that were passionate about sports, and there were students that were really passionate about entrepreneurship and wanted do the

Working in SyncUnique Program Brings Together Cross-Section of Students for Sports Tech Class

SUMMER 2018 11

Basys placed its focus on using wearable technology in gloves and shoes fitted with microchips to aid with technique analysis. Players and coaches could then evaluate such aspects as balance, approach an-gles and force from watching practice film. How much force can a player generate on a blocking sled given his stance and hand positioning? Or how well can a defensive back come out of a break based on how his feet are positioned?

To get more insight into how this idea could be best utilized, Rambo took advan-tage of a special connection that could pro-vide crucial guidance – head football coach Justin Wilcox, who was more than willing to listen and lend his advice.

“Evan told me what they were thinking and I spent some time with them,” Wil-cox said. “A couple of our coaches were involved, too. What were the measurables we would want to use? What’s something that’s practical and what’s something that maybe sounds good but isn’t practical? We ended up with coming up with the ability to measure force.”

At the end of eight weeks, each of the teams within the Sports Tech Collider made five-minute presentations on their projects and ideas to a room full of classmates, ad-visors from some of Silicon Valley’s biggest firms and even a few venture capitalists. A team of judges ranked the top three ideas and Basys took first place, giving the group the opportunity to compete for the Collid-er Cup against winners from all 12 SCET classes. Once again, Basys finished first, and now teammates Rambo, Mittal and Hasan plan to keep Basys together to con-

tinue developing their mod-el with the hope of making it a fully marketable prod-uct someday.

“In this class, you re-ally have to get outside of your comfort zone,” Rambo said. “Just the idea of this class can be intim-idating for athletes and even for engineers or com-puter science majors. It’s a learning environment. It’s a place for ideas to come together. It doesn’t really matter what your major is. It matters how much you’re willing to put into this process. All that

matters is, are you willing to work with other people. Are you comfortable with other people?”

Clearly, the answer is yes for Rambo. And with a full semester version of the Sports Tech Collider being offered this fall, expect another good cross section of students to agree, as well.

same thing in the sports field. We could really see that they wanted to take the time to do something that would matter in that space.”

“I found out about the class when my ad-visor sent out an email for it,” Keelen said. “It didn’t detail a lot about it, but as soon as it said ‘sports and tech,’ I knew I want-ed to take it. There wasn’t much thought in-volved because I knew immediately it was something I wanted to do.”

As time approached for the start of two-unit, eight-week course, Rambo’s anticipa-tion continued to grow.

“It was really exciting because I had no idea really of how the class was going to go or really what the possibilities were around it,” Rambo said. “I was intrigued by the en-ergy and atmosphere, just bringing togeth-er ideas and what can happen from it.”

BY HERB BENENSON

Above (l-r), Cassidy Keelen, Stephen Torres, Evan Rambo and Danielle Vivo relax in the Su-tardja Center inside Memorial Stadium. At right, Torres, Vivo and Team Basys show off the SCET Collider Cup.

Having recently undergone knee surgery, Rambo had an interest in finding ways to ei-ther help with injury prevention or see how players move about the field. His team, called Basys, also included Tushar Mittal, a chemical biology and material engineer-ing major, and Sahil Hasan, an electrical engineering and computer science major.


Natan Wegrzycki-Szymczyk always knew when a professor had reached his name while taking roll.

“When they stop, I know they’ve gotten to my name,” he said.Wegrzycki-Szymczyk may have a challenging name to pronounce,

but the bigger challenge is finding a way to slow him down in the water. The three-time Pac-12 Men’s Rowing Athlete of the Year is one of the most accomplished rowers ever to wear the Blue & Gold, and he was equally accomplished in the classroom. He was named the 2018 Pac-12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year and is a two-time Pac-12 All-Academic selection.

Wegrzycki-Szymczyk (pronounced wuh-GRIN-ski SIM-check) was also a 2016 Olympian for his native Poland, finishing seventh in the single scull event. He was the youngest athlete in Brazil for his discipline.

“You can almost use him as a model,” Cal head coach Mike Teti said. “English is his second language and he was able to come in and improve every semester, and improve with his rowing as well. I couldn’t have done it. I think it takes a special person to do what he has done. That’s Cal in a nutshell.”

Wegrzycki-Szymczyk began rowing around the age of 10 when his father, Jaroslaw, took him to a master’s club he belonged to in their hometown of Krakow. First using rowing simply a vehicle

to have fun and spend time with friends, Wegrzycki-Szymczyk be-gan focusing on the sport more seriously as he grew bigger and stronger.

When he won the Junior World Championship in 2013, American college coaches began taking an interest. Wegrzyc-ki-Szymczyk knew about Cal’s academic reputation, but the con-cept of collegiate athletics was a mystery to him.

Wegrzycki-Szymczyk was intrigued by the prospect of earning a Cal degree, despite questioning whether he could handle the workload.

“I wanted to develop myself, not only in rowing,” Wegrzy-cki-Szymczyk said. “I knew Cal was a great university and well-known worldwide, but it’s not like I knew how athletics worked in the States. I didn’t really know about collegiate rowing, but I was really excited about the academic side of it”

After the language barrier presented some early struggles, We-grzycki-Szymczyk quickly adjusted to life in Berkeley during his freshman year. Then he was faced with a difficult decision – take his sophomore year off and return to Poland to train full-time for the Olympic Games, or remain in Berkeley to attend school, prac-tice with his Cal teammates and balance training for a trip to Rio on his own.

BY JONATHAN OKANES

NATAN WEGRZYCKI-SZYMCZYK

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NAMENo Matter How You Say It, Natan Wegrzycki-Szymczyk

Has Excelled on the Water and in the Classroom


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Wegrzycki-Szymczyk couldn’t imagine leaving what he was building at Cal, and he decided to remain in Berkeley.

“I had a great first year here – I im-proved a lot and met all my friends,” We-grzycki-Szymczyk said. “I was very happy. I wanted to prepare the best I can for the Olympics, but I also didn’t want to sepa-rate from here. I just felt like it would be best if I stayed here.”

Despite most Polish athletes training at home, his country’s federation sup-ported his decision. Wegrzycki-Szymczyk was able to work out a balance between training with his teammates and doing so on his own, and the results couldn’t have been more optimal.

Within a period of a few months, We-grzycki-Szymczyk helped the Golden Bears win the 2016 IRA national championship and then had a strong showing at the Olympic Games.

“I think he had the best of both worlds,” Teti said. “He rowed with us and won a national championship and also qualified for the Olympics. I think every-body won in that situation.”

Wegrzycki-Szymczyk’s decision to stay in Berkeley had more to do with academics than rowing. He felt he had gotten into a groove in the classroom and a year away would set him back. Plus, Cal was starting to feel more and more like home.

“It’s hard just doing one year and then not doing anything the whole next year, and then trying to get back,” Wegrzycki-Szymczyk said. “It was a little bit risky, but I just believed that being in the right en-vironment would help me to succeed. It worked out really well and I’m really happy about that.”

Wegrzycki-Szymczyk spent much of the fall of 2015 working with his teammates and when the calendar turned to 2016, he started focusing more and more training by himself in the single scull for the Olympics. Teti said the arrangement worked be-cause Wegrzycki-Szymczyk had the full support of the coaching staff and his teammates.

“The biggest thing is his support group was here,” Teti said. “It says a lot about the class he is with as well because there was never a time when he was off in the single and they said, ‘What about us?’ They were all supportive of him.”

Wegrzycki-Szymczyk said he never would have predicted his ac-ademic success, but added the setting at Cal turned him into the student he became.

“I wouldn’t have expected it from myself a couple years back,” Wegrzycki-Szymczyk said. “But the environment here has shaped me toward that. I just realized that it’s possible when I put the ef-fort in. It made me realize that it’s possible for me to do well and I need to take advantage of that.”

Wegrzycki-Szymczyk became so accomplished academically that he won a highly sought-after Pac-12 Postgraduate Scholarship of $9,000. He has been accepted into the Master’s of Philosophy program at Cambridge, where he plans on pursuing an interest in corporate social responsibility while competing on Cambridge’s esteemed rowing team.

Wegrzycki-Szymczyk had no idea what he wanted to study when he arrived at Cal, but one introductory sociology class changed all that, and it became his major.

“I really enjoyed learning about how society operates,” he said. “Part of it was looking at where change is happening. I learned about the way large corporations generate their profits and how that ultimately shapes everyone. I also learned about the different way companies emphasize their social responsibility and practices.”

For the record, Wegrzycki-Szymczyk said Academic Advisor Cas-sidy Raher of Cal’s Athletic Study Center is the most adept at pronouncing his last name. He hopes his name is remembered in Berkeley for a long time.

“I owe everything to Cal,” Wegrzycki-Szymczyk said. “It shaped the person I am now – the way I think, it shaped my goals, it shaped my point of view. I developed so many friendships here that I will never forget and I will keep the rest of my life. I’m sad it’s over because I’ll miss being here, but on the other hand, I feel like I’ve learned a lot. It really prepared me for the future, and that’s something I will always be grateful for.”

Natan Wegrzycki-Szymczyk, at top with his varsity eight teammates at the 2018 IRA regatta, sat on stage at Cal commencement ceremonies in May with fellow student- athlete graduates Nick Hamilton (left) and Teya Neff (right).


Even during a moment when some self-indulgence could be excused and expected, Teya Neff still couldn’t help but think of others.

The recently graduated Cal beach vol-leyball standout suffered a broken elbow while roller blading in San Francisco with her sister last winter, immediately wiping out her senior season. Neff knew right away her college volleyball career had just ended, but her first thoughts turned to oth-ers rather than herself.

“My mind was so centered around our team that I don’t even remember the physi-cal pain,” Neff said. “No part of me was like,

Neff became a co-captain in her junior season and the heartbeat of the team. The program was like her offspring and she was a proud parent. Her teammates started calling her “Mama Bear.”

“The program felt like a companion to me,” Neff said. “As it grew, I grew, too. I re-ally feel this connection to the school and the program.”

When the Bears gathered for their first team meeting of the 2018 season, Neff told her teammates that she would still be there for them, attending every practice, providing any guidance and assistance she could. Head coach Meagan Owusu gave

She ended up filling a huge void in our pro-gram.”

While remaining officially an active stu-dent-athlete on the team, Neff became the Bears’ de facto team manager. She did many procedural tasks, including arranging meals for the team on road trips. It’s a role that many athletes likely would resist or perhaps be embarrassed by, but Neff em-braced it without hesitation.

“She was someone good enough to be on the team and have a starting spot for a few years, and then she took on this whole new role,” said teammate Mackenzie Feld-man, another member of the original four

A Whole New RoleAnna Espenschade Award Winner Helped Set the Foundation for Cal Beach Volleyball

By Jonathan Okanes

Teya Neff was one of Cal’s first beach volleyball-only recruits and helped set a standard for the program both on and off the sand.

‘ow.’ Even more so, not getting to compete physically, I was really worried that I wouldn’t be a good teammate and captain, and I would lose that role for the team and the program. I just thought this needs to not diminish my role in terms of my influence on my team-mates, and the program and its success.”

Neff was one of the four original beach-only recruits to come to Cal in 2015, a year after the program launched. She immediately acknowledged the burden of laying the foundation of a program, and as her career progressed, developed a kinship with Cal beach volleyball and the University that was palpable.

Neff the flexibility to do what she wanted. What Neff wanted was to help in any way possible, no matter what the assignment.

Neff spent the first few weeks of practice helping as she could. The program didn’t have a team manager at the time, and Neff started doing more and more tasks that a manager would.

“I was hesitant to give her managerial roles because some athletes would be up-set with that,” Owusu said. “It wasn’t un-til Teya essentially forced me to give her jobs that I started to do that. Once I saw that she was truly embracing that role, we got comfortable with the day to day tasks.

beach-only recruits at Cal. “It says a lot about her. She made the best of the sit-uation and never complained that it was beneath her or anything like that.”

Neff had limited beach volleyball experi-ence when she arrived at Berkeley, but Rich Feller, the program’s head coach at the time, was looking more for the right kind of character fit to help get the program off the ground. Operating off a tip from former Cal vice chancellor Nathan Brostrom, who knew the Neff family, Feller went to watch Teya play in a club tournament.

“I went and watched her play and saw the person she was,” Feller said. “She was

SUMMER 2018 17

Teya Neff was one of Cal’s first beach volleyball-only recruits and helped set a standard for the program both on and off the sand.

“I feel very proud that I have done Cal right. I have a genuine sense that this is the place for me, and I’ll always have that feeling around it.”

– Teya Neff

part of it. That is a huge honor.”

Neff’s mom, Kirsten, attended Cal’s Grad-uate School of Jour-nalism, but Teya never imagined she’d wind up in Berkeley. Grow-ing up in nearby No-vato, the Neff family visited friends that lived above California Memorial Stadium and Teya attended a ballet at Zellerbach Hall. But

talking to the younger players on the team. You could see her en-couraging the other players, consoling them, taking time with them if need be. We needed athletes and we needed quality people. I felt re-ally good about making that offer.”

Neff immediately rec-ognized the responsibil-ity she inherited when she became a member of the program’s first beach-only recruiting class.

“I remember Rich saying, ‘Are you willing to put this program first and work for this?’” Neff said. “That commitment meant so much to me. I took that very serious-ly. It was a very special thing and I got to be a

she admitted “high school was not great for me” and she had plenty of friends who were more academically accom-plished.

Neff doubted herself when she arrived at Cal, but it be-came clear quickly those apprehensions were not founded. She thrived in the classroom, in the campus community and on the Clark Kerr Sand Courts. She end-ed up twice being named to the Pac-12 All-Academic first team (and likely had a good shot at a third honor had she not been injured as a senior) and won the prestigious Anna Espenschade Award, given to the graduating female stu-dent-athlete at Cal for suc-cessful integration of aca-demic and athletic pursuits.

On the sand, Neff was a regular member of the Bears’ playing rotation and competed in 80 career matches, tying for the team lead with 16 wins as a junior. She also taught a DeCal course on female stu-dent-athlete leadership and served as an editor for the UC Berkeley Comparative Litera-ture Undergraduate Journal.

“I really didn’t think I believed in myself,” Neff said. “Graduat-ing from Cal is the first time in my life that I’ve felt truly proud. I feel very proud that I have done Cal right. I have a genu-ine sense that this is the place for me, and I’ll always have that feeling around it.”

Neff received her degree in peace and conflict studies and spent last summer as an intern at the World Health Organiza-tion in Switzerland. Her focus is on conflict resolution – both internationally and interperson-ally. Neff is considering possi-ble careers in diplomacy and corporate social responsibility.

“From the day I met Teya, she displayed a high charac-ter,” Owusu said. “I always joke with her that she has to go save the world now. Whatever she chooses to do, I know that she will have the same impact that she had on Cal beach vol-leyball. She is just a genuine human being that positively affects those around her.”


BASEBALL

Head coach Mike Neu’s return to Berke-ley was a positive one as the Bears

finished with over 30 wins for just the third time in the last seven seasons. First base-man Andrew Vaughn established himself as one of the premier players in the country, earning national and Pac-12 Player of the Year honors as well as a spot on both the Golden Spikes Award and Dick Howser Tro-phy lists. Tanner Dodson garnered recogni-tion for his efforts as both an outfielder and pitcher as he was named a finalist for the John Olerud Award (top two-way player in the country), while outfielder Jonah Davis also secured his first all-conference nod thanks to a breakout junior season. The Bears fin-ished fifth in the Pac-12 and ended the year with 16 Pac-12 victories, six series wins against conference opponents and seven wins over teams ranked in the RPI top 50.

MEN’S BASKETBALL

The first year of the Wyking Jones era featured a roster led by senior big men

Marcus Lee and Kingsley Okoroh along-side a trio of highly talented rookies. Lee and Okoroh combined to block 154 shots, just seven shy of the Cal record, while Lee shot a team-best 56.3 percent from the field. Meanwhile, freshmen Justice Sueing, Juhwan Harris-Dyson and Dari-us McNeill proved the foundation for Cal basketball remains strong. Sueing led the Bears in Pac-12 play with 15.8 points per game, and Harris-Dyson paced the team in steals in conference action, contributing to a Cal squad that logged more than 200 takeaways for the first time in more than a decade. McNeill eclipsed Allen Crabbe’s school freshman record of 62 three-point-ers made, capping off the season with 67 triples. In the classroom, the Bears saw Nick Hamilton headline the Pac-12 All-Ac-ademic team with a 3.75 GPA.

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

For the sixth time in seven seasons, the Cal women’s basketball team earned

a trip to the NCAA Tournament, receiving a seven seed to the 2018 NCAA Tourna-ment. Cal opened the year with a chal-lenging non-conference slate that featured matchups against top-ranked Connecticut and SEC-powers Missouri and Kentucky. The Bears went on to record their most successful conference campaign in three seasons, posting an 11-7 record in Pac-12 play to earn a five seed in the conference tournament. Cal capped off its home slate in thrilling fashion, upsetting 14th-ranked Stanford, 78-66, in a senior day sendoff for Mikayla Cowling and Penina Davidson. The Bears were led by junior forward Kris-tine Anigwe, who earned All-Pac-12 and All-America honors for the third consecutive season and led the team in both scoring and rebounding. Cal ended the season with an overall record of 21-11, its sixth 20-win season under head coach Lindsay Gottlieb.

BEACH VOLLEYBALL

The 2018 season was one of enormous growth for the Bears, who finished the

year with their highest national ranking ever at No. 12 and placed third in the Pac-12. Cal posted a landmark victory when it defeated No. 4 USC in March and ended up with wins over eight nationally ranked opponents. The Bears also registered the first 20-win season in the program’s five-year history. Freshman Mima Mirkovic was named to the All-Pac-12 first team and Pac-12 All-Freshman team, while sophomore Iya Lindahl earned second-team All-Pac-12 honors. The Bears’ Grace Campbell and Maddie Micheletti finished the season as the second-ranked No. 5 pair in the country with a record of 27-3, and junior Mia Merino and freshman Caroline Schafer finished as the fifth-ranked No. 4 pair at 23-5. Camp-bell and Micheletti also won the program’s first-ever Pac-12 Pair of the Week award.

MEN’S CROSS COUNTRY

Trent Brendel and Garrett Corcoran led the Golden Bears by qualifying for

the NCAA Championships as individuals. Corcoran took 13th at the Pac-12 Champi-onship and 15th at the NCAA Regionals to book his spot, while Brendel was 17th at the Pac-12 meet and 13th in the region. As a team, Cal placed seventh at the Pac-12 Championship, which also included a 38th-place showing by Paul Zeiss, and the Bears followed up with a ninth-place finish at the NCAA West Regional. Kai Benedict and Corcoran both earned spots on the Pac-12 All-Academic second team, while Brendel, Cameron Tu, John Hogan, Takeshi Okada and Zeiss all claimed honorable mention recognition. The men’s team was also hon-ored by the USTFCCCA as an All-Academic team for its cumulative GPA.

WOMEN’S CROSS COUNTRY

Bethan Knights and Brie Oakley led the Bears to their first NCAA Champion-

ships appearance in six years, where they helped Cal to a 22nd-place national finish. Oakley was named Pac-12 Freshman of the Year and earned USTFCCCA All-American honors alongside Knights. Oakley finished her debut campaign with a 38th-place fin-ish at the NCAA meet, and she notched a 12th-place finish at the Pac-12 Cham-pionships and claimed 11th at regionals. Knights posted four top-10 finishes during the fall, including a 10th-place mark at the Pac-12 Championships and NCAA region-als. Knights then took 23rd at the NCAA Championships. As a team, Cal was fifth at both Pac-12’s and regionals. In addition to Knights and Oakley, Marissa Williams notched a 21st-place result at the Pac-12 Championships and she took 36th at the regional meet.

FIELD HOCKEY

The Golden Bears got back on track in 2018, clinching a share of the Ameri-

ca East divisional title and upsetting three top-25 opponents. Rookie phenom Megan Rodgers scored 17 goals with three assists to cruise into Cal’s season top 10 in both goals and points en route to earning NFH-CA All-Region and America East All-Confer-ence honors. She was one of three Bears who claimed all-conference recognition, alongside Femke Delissen and Mara Guti-errez. Cal continued to excel in the class-room, with the Bears repeating with NFHCA National Academic team laurels after plac-ing 10 on the National Academic Squad and 15 on the America East Honor Roll. Janaye Sakkas led the Bears as Cal’s AE All-Academic selection. In the offseason, both Rodgers and Katrina Carter continued Cal’s rich pipeline to the USA Field Hockey National team, with each earning spots on Team USA’s junior squads.

FOOTBALL

Cal started the Justin Wilcox era by rush-ing out to a 3-0 start that included a

season-opening 35-30 victory at North Car-olina. At home, the Golden Bears topped SEC foe Ole Miss, 27-16, and later routed eighth-ranked Washington State, 37-3, to pick up their first win over a top 10 team in 14 years. Overall, Cal finished 5-7 overall and one win shy of reaching a bowl game. The Bears made their top statistical im-provements on defense, where Cal allowed 14.2 fewer points per game than in 2016 and improved by an average of 40 spots in 14 of the 15 primary categories tracked by the NCAA. Running back Patrick Laird (1,127 yards rushing) and quarterback Ross Bow-ers (3,039 yards passing) had breakout per-formances on offense, while Kanawai Noa and Vic Wharton (combined 123 catches in 2017) will be the nation’s third-most prolific returning wide receiver duo in 2018.

MEN’S GOLF

Cal finished the 2017-18 campaign ranked as high as No. 9 according to

Golfweek under Pac-12 Coach of the Year Walter Chun. National Player of the Year and All-American Collin Morikawa led the squad and broke the all-time NCAA season record with a 68.68 stroke average. Cal won three events, including the prestigious Tavistock Collegiate Invitational, its own Alister MacK-enzie Invitational and the Wyoming Desert Intercollegiate. The Bears were also second at three consecutive tournaments to end the regular season before a disappointing performance at the NCAA Raleigh Regional left them out of the championship rounds. Morikawa, who posted nine top-10 show-ings, won both in Cabo and at the Wyoming Desert Intercollegiate, while KK Limbhasut picked up victories at the MacKenzie and Ka’anapali Classic Collegiate Invitational. Sebastian Crampton was one of four play-ers, including Morikawa, to share the Wyo-ming Desert Intercollegiate crown.

SPORTS REVIEWS

2017-2018

Nick Hamilton

Tanner Dodson

Kristine Anigwe

Mima Mirkovic

Garrett Corcoran

Bethan Knights

Megan Rodgers Patrick Laird Collin Morikawa

SUMMER 2018 19

WOMEN’S GOLF

Cal earned an NCAA Regional berth for the 19th consecutive year despite bat-

tling injuries throughout the spring. The Bears defeated four top-10 teams and eight top-25 teams at the Silverado Show-down, as Cal finished second in a 17-team field for its highest finish of the year. Jiyoon Jang was named first-team All-Pac-12 after consecutive top-three finishes at the San Diego State March Mayhem and at Silver-ado, including the best 54-hole score for a Cal golfer since 2010 at the Silverado Showdown. Senior Marthe Wold played the best tournament of her career at the NCAA San Francisco Regional to tie for third place and earn an individual spot at the NCAA Championships, where she finished in a tie for 83rd. Wold, Jang, Maria Herraez Galvez and Amina Wolf were all named Pac-12 All-Academic honorable mention.

MEN’S GYMNASTICS

Under first-year head coach JT Okada, the Golden Bears contended for na-

tional honors as they faced many of the top teams in the nation frequently. A com-petitive regular season propelled Cal to its fifth consecutive trip to the national stage and in one year’s time, the Bears more than doubled their number of entries to the NCAA Championship individual finals. Seven Cal gymnasts advanced to the culmi-nating session after just three Bears qual-ified a season ago. At the NCAA meet, Cal produced a pair of All-Americans in senior Yordan Aleksandrov and sophomore Kyte Crigger. Aleksandrov’s stellar collegiate ca-reer closed with a 13.966 high bar routine to tie for fourth nationally, while Crigger, who did not compete in the NCAA Cham-pionships in 2017, recorded a 14.200, his second-best score of the season, to tie for fifth.

WOMEN’S GYMNASTICS

Cal punched its second ticket to the NCAA Championships in three sea-

sons with another record-toppling year. The Golden Bears turned in 14 team totals that ranked among the top five in school his-tory, including school-record scores overall (197.500), on the uneven bars (49.550) and on the balance beam (49.400). The Cal squad claimed 40 total event titles, led by Toni-Ann Williams’ 21 crowns. Fan fa-vorite Williams rebounded from last year’s season-ending Achilles injury in grand fash-ion, capping 2018 with Cal’s first NCAA All-America honor since 2014. She was one of five Golden Bear gymnasts ranked in the top 50 on an event at the conclusion of the regular season – a list that also in-cluded All-Pac-12 selections Arianna Rob-inson and Nina Schank. Justin Howell be-came the first gymnastics coach in school history to surpass 100 career wins as the Bears ended the season ranked ninth in the country.

LACROSSE

Competing in the inaugural Pac-12 sea-son, Cal finished the 2018 campaign

with an overall record of 6-12. The Golden Bears defeated Arizona State in Tempe for their first-ever Pac-12 victory before beating Oregon in Berkeley, 15-13, in Cal’s most-ex-citing win of the season. Kirsten Swanson led the Bears in scoring with 56 points on 43 goals and 13 assists. Swanson was one of 13 goal-scorers for the Bears. On the defensive end, team captains Meredith Haggerty, Elizabeth Koehler and Alexandra Robertson led the way. Koehler became Cal’s single-season leader in draws with 76. She earned Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Week during the campaign, as well. One of the most aggressive players on the field, Haggerty paced the Bears in caused turnovers with 20. Her season total of 74 draws was second to Koehler in school sin-gle-season history.

MEN’S ROWING

Cal ended the year with a podium finish, taking third in the overall team stand-

ings at the IRA National Championship Regatta on Mercer Lake in New Jersey, where all three eights finished in the top three in their respective races. The Golden Bears put together an impressive regular season campaign, including a victory over eventual national champion Yale at the San Diego Crew Classic in the varsity eight. Cal took second at the Pac-12 Champion-ships, highlighted by a win from the Bears’ freshman eight. Senior oarsman Natan Wegrzycki-Szymczyk was named the Pac-12 Men’s Rowing Athlete of the Year for a re-cord-setting third consecutive season while also earning Pac-12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year honors. The 2018 season marked the end of the Mike Teti-era in Berkeley, as the 2016 IRA National Coach of the Year takes over head coaching duties for the U.S. Men’s National team.

WOMEN’S ROWING

For the second time in the last three seasons, Cal closed the year as NCAA

champions. The Golden Bears bested rival Washington in the overall team standings to claim the program’s fourth NCAA team title and second under head coach Al Acos-ta. Leading the charge for the crown was the Bears’ varsity eight, which rebound-ed from a third-place finish at the 2018 Pac-12 Championships to win gold at the NCAA regatta, Cal’s third all-time NCAA title in event. The varsity four also took home gold, topping rival Washington in a thrill-ing race to clinch the outright team title for the Bears. The second varsity eight won silver. The Bears’ national championship marks the 11th consecutive year Cal has finished in the top three at NCAAs. Senior Mia Croonquist earned a spot on the Pac-12 all-conference team for her efforts in the varsity eight.

RUGBY

Rugby took both its 7s and 15-a-side schedules all the way to their respec-

tive national championship finals in the spring of 2018. In 15s, the Golden Bears beat Army, Navy and British Columbia in front of their home fans, swept their PAC Rugby Conference 15s schedule for the sixth straight year and finished as national runner-up using a starting squad that in-cluded seven freshman-sophomore under-classmen. Only two weeks later at the Na-tional College 7s, Cal beat Arkansas in the quarterfinals and Kutztown in the semis, but could not complete a clean sweep of its six-match weekend, finishing as runner-up again with a 5-1 tournament. Off the pitch, 23 members of the team earned Scholar Athlete status, 10 of whom achieved All- Academic recognition, and one, Justin Dunn, who was named co-recipient of the Walter A. Haas Award for Community Service.

MEN’S SOCCER

After a strong showing in its 2017 regu-lar-season campaign, Cal returned to

the NCAA Tournament as an at-large bid and hosted San Francisco in the first round. The Golden Bears, who finished 11-7-0 overall and 6-4-0 in Pac-12, clinched their 12th playoff berth under head coach Kevin Grimes and the program’s 18th overall ap-pearance. Season highlights included a six-game win streak, four Pac-12 Player of the Week honors, and multiple stints in the top 25 on the United Soccer Coaches poll, with Cal’s highest ranking coming in at No. 17. The Bears’ postseason appearance marked their first entry into the field since 2014. In-dividually, senior midfielder Jose Carrera-Gar-cia led the league with nine assists, while sophomore goalkeeper Drake Callender’s 71 saves topped the conference charts. Senior Aravind Sivakumar was named the Pac-12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year and an Academic All-American, graduating with a 3.90 GPA as a computer science major.

WOMEN’S SOCCER

Cal extended its streak of NCAA Tour-nament appearances to 14 in a row,

earning a berth to the 2017 tournament this past fall. The Golden Bears made the program’s 25th postseason appearance all-time before falling to Bay Area rival San-ta Clara to end the season with an overall record of 13-6-1. Boasting one of the top defensive units in the nation, Cal posted 10 shutouts on the season and matched the program single-season record by allow-ing just 11 goals in 20 games. The Bears were led by first-team All-American defender Indigo Gibson and 2017 Pac-12 Goalkeeper of the Year and second-team All-American Emily Boyd. Boyd capped her decorated ca-reer as Cal’s all-time leader in both saves and shutouts. The 2017 season also saw Cal head coach Neil McGuire become the Bears’ all-time wins leader, earning his re-cord-setting 125th victory in a season-open-ing win against UC Irvine on Aug. 18.

Marthe Wold Kyte Crigger Nina Schank

Meredith Haggerty

Natan Wegrzycki-Szymczyk

Mia Croonquist

Thomas Robles

Drake Callender

Emily Boyd


SOFTBALL

Cal earned its 29th NCAA postseason appearance in 30 seasons under head

coach Diane Ninemire, who celebrated reaching 1,300 career wins during the year. The Golden Bears headed into tournament play in Athens, Ga., after finishing seventh in the potent Pac-12, up a spot from last season. Cal, which finished the season 34-19 overall and 7-16 in the Pac-12, was led by first-team All-Pac-12 members Lindsay Rood and Jazmyn Jackson. Rood paced the league with 30 steals and eight triples, while both infielders accumulated 62 base hits. The pitching duo of Zoe Conley and Ka-malani Dung provided strong results inside the circle. While Conley topped the confer-ence with seven saves to become Cal’s single-season leader, Dung made her mark with a perfect game when the Bears visited Hawai’i. Rood and Conley were both voted NFCA All-Pacific Region honorees, as well.

MEN’S SWIMMING & DIVING

Another tremendously successful sea-son in the pool ended with the Bears

claiming their fifth-ever Pac-12 team cham-pionship and placing in the top two at the NCAA Championships for the ninth year in a row. Junior Andrew Seliskar earned Pac-12 Swimmer of the Meet honors for the second time in his career, and head coach David Durden was named Pac-12 Coach of the Year for the seventh time in 11 years. Cal’s impressive season wasn’t confined to the pool as the Bears were named a Scholar All-America team thanks to a 3.11 team GPA in the fall. Ten Cal swimmers also earned Pac-12 All-Academic honors. On the boards, Johnny Robinson was named Pac-12 Diving Newcomer of the Year, as both he and soph-omore Connor Callahan qualified to compete at the NCAA Championships.

WOMEN’S SWIMMING & DIVING

Cal extended its run of top 3 national finishes to 10 years in a row with a run-

ner-up showing at the NCAA Championships in March. Junior Kathleen Baker defended her NCAA title in the 200-yard back in spec-tacular fashion, setting an American record with a time of 1:47.30. Overall, the Bears broke seven school records during the year, including in four of five relays. At the Pac-12 Championships, Baker captured both the 200 back and 200 individual medley, while Cal earned victories in the 200, 400 and 800 free relays, as well as in the 200 medley relay. With a 3.49 team GPA in the spring, the Bears were named a Scholar All-America team by the swim coaches as-sociation for the 17th consecutive semes-ter. Amy Bilquist (first team) also led 16 Cal swimmers and divers on the Pac-12 All-Ac-ademic squad.

MEN’S TENNIS

Cal reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament, upsetting No. 24

North Carolina State before falling at 12th-ranked Texas. In the individual NCAA sin-gles draw, the Bears’ 54th-ranked Billy Grif-fith stunned Kentucky’s eight-rated Ryotaro Matsumura, 6-4, 6-3, in the first round but lost in the round of 32. Griffith and fellow senior J.T. Nishimura also earned invitations to NCAA’s in doubles, but they dropped a 6-4, 6-4 decision to the nation’s No. 2 team North Carolina in their open-ing match. Director of Men’s Tennis Peter Wright led a talented albeit young team that featured seven freshmen to the title of the BNP Paribas Open Collegiate Tennis Chal-lenge. Jack Molloy clinched five dual-match wins and, along with fellow first-year Bears such as Ben Draper, Paul Barretto and Ja-cob Brumm, could be the centerpiece of Cal’s squad going forward.

WOMEN’S TENNIS

Cal placed three players into the NCAA singles draw – one of just seven teams

in the country to earn the honor – with freshmen Julia Rosenqvist and Anna Bright joining junior Olivia Hauger in the postsea-son. The five-player rookie class that also included Vivian Glozman, Hana Mraz and Jasie Dunk bolstered head coach Aman-da Augustus’ squad, though veterans still made their mark. Hauger and senior Karla Popovic reached the doubles final of the ITA Northwest Regional Championships. Maria Smith, a junior, led the Bears with four match-clinching victories. Bright (35-10) won the most singles matches for the Bears and was ranked as high as 27th nationally. Rosenqvist emerged as Cal’s top singles player and as Cal’s top dou-bles team with Hauger. Entering NCAAs, the Swede was ranked 36th, Bright 45th, Hauger 50th and Popovic 89th. Hauger and Rosenqvist earned a No. 46 doubles ranking.

MEN’S TRACK & FIELD

During outdoor season, Cal sent five individuals in six events to the NCAA

Championships, with three Bears claiming second-team All-American honors - Ashtyn Davis (110m hurdles), Silviu Bocancea (hammer) and Peter Simon (shot put). At the Pac-12 meet, Tuomas Kaukolahti won a conference title in the triple jump with a leap of 52-8.25. During the indoor cam-paign, the Bears finished 20th at the NCAA Championships with 11 points, posting their best result since 2010. Davis took third place in the 60m hurdles as he set a school record with a time of 7.63. Kau-kolahti also placed fifth in the triple jump, while McKay Johnson claimed eighth in the shot put. Johnson set a school record in the shot put in the season opener with a mark of 64-5.25, with Kaukolahti (triple jump) and Davis (60m hurdles) both win-ning MPSF championships.

WOMEN’S TRACK & FIELD

Ashley Anderson (triple jump) and Lauren Martinez (pole vault) earned spots at the

NCAA Championship during the outdoor sea-son. Anderson recorded her third appearance at the NCAA event, while Martinez set a school record in her specialty at NCAA’s (14-1.25). Martinez also claimed a Pac-12 Champion-ship in the pole vault. Overall, three school records and two freshman records fell during the campaign. In addition to Martinez, Chrissy Glasmann set the javelin mark (164-0) and Camryn Rogers established the school and freshman record in the hammer throw (215-3). Annie Boos also took down the school’s freshman record in the 3000m steeplechase. Indoors, Martinez set another school record while qualifying for the NCAA Championship, winning the MPSF title along the way. Marti-nez and Bethan Knights (5000m) took home second-team All-America honors at nationals.

VOLLEYBALL

Cal showed marked improvement from the previous three years, going 13-18 overall,

which included a nine-match winning streak. Senior Antzela Dempi became the first Gold-en Bear to lead the conference in service aces (50). Dempi also paced the Bears in kills (2.98/set), was named the MVP of the Cal Classic and made the all-tournament team in two other events. Freshman Mima Mirkovic started every match at outside hitter and tied for second on the team with 2.47 kills per set. She also earned a Pac-12 Fresh-man of the Week honor after being named to the all-tournament team at the Rice Invi-tational. Dempi was named to the CoSIDA Academic All-District 8 team, as well as the Pac-12 All-Academic first team. Senior Jessi-ca Gaffney was chosen second-team Pac-12 All-Academic, while senior Caihla Petiprin and juniors Carmen Annevlink and Mackenzie Al-brecht earned honorable mention.

MEN’S WATER POLO

Led by Peter J. Cutino Award-winner Luca Cupido, the Bears made their third-

straight trip to the NCAA Championship and spent a portion of the season ranked No. 1 in the nation. Head coach Kirk Everist’s squad finished the season 20-4 and qualified for the postseason with a thrilling win over Stan-ford at the MPSF Championship. Cupido led the MPSF in scoring with 58 goals and be-came Cal’s first ACWPC national player of the year since 2010 and first conference player of the year since 1995. Johnny Hooper, Odys-seas Masmanidis and Kevin Le Vine earned All-America honors, and nine Golden Bears were honored by both the MPSF and ACW-PC as All-Academic selections. Cal was also honored by the ACWPC with the All-Academic team award for carrying a team GPA over 3.0.

WOMEN’S WATER POLO

The Bears had one of the best seasons in program history, reaching No. 1 in the

national polls for three weeks and notching memorable victories over then-No. 1 Stanford and No. 4 UCLA. Cal’s road victory over Stan-ford was one to remember, as freshman Kitty Lynn Joustra scored a golden goal in sudden victory overtime for an 8-7 win. Cal’s perch atop the CWPA rankings was its first stint at No. 1 since 2000. The Bears reached the semifinals of the NCAA Championship and finished the season with a 20-6 record. Se-nior Dora Antal became Cal’s all-time leading scorer and was named to the All-MPSF first team for the fourth time. Fellow senior Anna Illes also earned first-team honors. Cal had eight student-athletes earn MPSF All-Academ-ic recognition, including a third consecutive nod for senior Kindred Paul.

Lindsay Rood

Andrew Seliskar

Kathleen Baker

Billy Griffith

Julia Rosenqvist

McKay Johnson

Lauren Martinez

Antzela Dempi

Luca Cupido Dora Antal

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Before she created four separate endowments to support women’s basketball, field hockey, the library and biological sciences at the University of California; before her 50-year career in education; be-

fore her 1982 Doctor of Education degree, earned 25 years after her 1957 Master’s at Cal, where she played two sports and did groundbreaking research; and before she entered Cal as a 16-year-old freshman in the fall of 1950, Betty Pacheco spent her childhood on the family ranch in Hayward.

basketball in the winter. As a junior, Pa-checo’s athletic endeavors were recog-nized with a Big C for her proficiency in two sports.

“I was very excited when I got into the Big C Society,” said Pacheco, who still has the Bic C jacket she received. “I was very pleased and very proud.”

Although the athletic programs for men and women were still separate and distinct at the time, academic classes for under-graduates in the Phys. Ed. major were co-ed. Pacheco’s work in the classroom was of such a high caliber that she was invited to join a research team – heretofore all male – led by Professor Franklin M. Henry.

A Cal-trained Ph.D. in psychology who grew up on a farm in Missouri, Professor Henry was doing important work in phys-iological research, and Pacheco joined his team. Pacheco’s work with Henry and fellow researches included many papers,

Betty Pacheco Creates Endowments for Field Hockey and Women’s HoopsFour Total Endowments Also Benefit Library & Biological Sciences

By Anton Malko

“As a new member of the Cal Athletics family, I am humbled to lead a department supported by alumni like Betty Pacheco. Her commitment to our campus commu-nity and our students will have a trans-formational positive impact for years to come.”

– Director of Athletics Jim Knowlton

An only child but hardly alone among the apricot and cherry orchards with her cousins and fellow Portuguese families who had settled in the area in the early 1900s, Pacheco was responsible at the age of four for keeping apricots face up on their trays after they had been cut in half and pitted to dry in the sun. The la-bor helped to ingrain her amazing work ethic, but didn’t come without occa-sional complaint.

“’If you don’t want to do this all your life, you’d better go to college,’” Pacheco re-called of her mother’s response. “That was repeated thousands of different times.”

At Hayward High School, Pacheco was challenged and inspired by her teachers and coaches as a student and an athlete. At home, uncles and aunts questioned the extra hours she spent with books spread open on the dinner table, but both parents understood. “My dad said, ‘If she’s going to school and we’re going to pay for her education, she’s going to go to the best,’” Pacheco said. “And so there was no ques-tion about it. That’s how I ended up at Cal.”

Cal’s tuition back then, at $32 for the year, “was very for hard for them to pay. It was a lot of money in those days,” she said. The price may have been steep, but Pacheco was prepared to make the most out of every day in Berkeley.

“It’s early to rise and you don’t go inside until the sun’s down,” she said of her foun-dation as a rancher. “I also had an intellec-tual curiosity about everything, ever since I can remember.”

Pacheco pursued a major in physical education and minor in U.S. history while playing field hockey in the autumn and


Betty Pacheco (with ball) and her teammates from Stratford Hall, where she lived as senior.

Betty Pacheco lived in Cheney Hall as a freshman in 1950-51.

punctuated by one authored by Pacheco entitled “Improvement in Jumping Perfor-mance Due to Preliminary Exercise,” pub-lished in 1956.

“I was the only woman allowed in the men’s department, and the other women weren’t too happy about it,” Pacheco re-called. “That was quite an honor. I got very interested in the whole area of research.”

Pacheco officially joined the education profession during her Master in Education program at Cal when she began teaching at Bancroft Junior High in San Leandro. She served as a counselor there until 1962, when she became an assistant principal for counseling and guidance at Newark High School. She took the role of assistant principal for curriculum and instruction at Memorial High in Newark in 1972 and became principal in 1974.

After a sabbatical in 1980-81, during which she began the doctorate program she would complete at University of the Pacific in 1982, Pacheco became the direc-tor of educational services and employer/employee relations for the Newark Unified School District and served there for three years as associate superintendent. From 1986-94, she was the superintendent of schools for Fremont Union High School in Silicon Valley, an area including five cities within 99 square miles.

For 10 years following her retirement from the K-12 public education system in 1994 – a time when she was named Woman of the Year by the State of Califor-nia Legislature and Superintendent of the Year in her region – Pacheco taught as an adjunct professor at Santa Clara Universi-ty and San Jose State, bringing a lifetime of experience brimming with honors, pub-lished work and community service.

Having devoted her life as a public ser-vant to the youth of her community, Pacheco has made amazing financial contributions to the well being of the Cal community with the creation of four endowments.

“I got so much from Cal,” Pacheco said. “The library is an amazing place. In the sciences, I want to help fund research to see what discoveries they can make. In basketball and hockey, to see scholarships going to children who are the first to at-tend college, and to help cover the costs of equipment, I want to help keep things like that going.”

Pacheco credited athletics for opening doors to a wider world and providing a healthier life balance. “As an only child, sports brought me into contact with a lot of other students and people,” she said. “It was important for my health and well-being, and it helped me develop important communication and analytical skills that are critical for success later on.”

The generosity of a four-endowment commitment with seven-figure potential begged the question: How is a retired educator able to make such a significant gift?

“When I was the age of five, I had a pass-book with savings in it. And I have it still,” Pacheco said. “The first time I added four pennies. The next time I went to the bank, I put in a nickel. Every year it increased, and as soon as I started getting a paying job — $72 a month for a teacher – I was on Telegraph Avenue at the Bank of America thinking, Wow, I’m making so much money, I can’t believe it.”

Stalwart saving and smart investing allowed that initial four-cent deposit to mature quite a bit. The Cal communi-ty is exceedingly grateful for Pacheco’s generosity.

“As a new member of the Cal Athletics family, I am humbled to lead a department supported by alumni like Betty Pacheco,” Director of Athletics Jim Knowlton said. “Her commitment to our campus commu-nity and our students will have a trans-formational positive impact for years to come.”

“Betty is an inspiration to our pro-gram,” women’s basketball coach Lindsay Gottlieb said. “The experiences our stu-dent-athletes have during their time at Cal are truly life changing. We are so grateful for Betty’s donation, which will pave the way for even more young women to take advantage of all the incredible opportuni-ties this university provides.”

Added field hockey coach Shellie On-stead: “Betty’s journey is extraordinary and we are humbled to be on the receiving end of such generosity. The role of sport in education for women remains vital. Everyone in the field hockey program is eternally grateful.”

To learn more about how to support Cal Athletics, visit www.calathleticsfund.com.

“Betty’s journey is extraordinary and we are hum-bled to be on the receiving end of such generosity. The role of sport in education for women remains vital. Everyone in the field hockey program is eter-nally grateful.”

– field hockey coach Shellie Onstead

“Betty is an inspiration to our program. The experiences our student-athletes have during their time at Cal are truly life chang-ing. We are so grateful for Betty’s donation, which will pave the way for even more young women to take advantage of all the incredible opportunities this university provides.”

– women’s basketball coach Lindsay Gottlieb

SUMMER 2018 23

Betty Pacheco was named Woman of the Year by the State of California Legislature and Super-intendent of the Year in her region in 1994.


BEAR SIGHTINGS

On behalf of all coaches, student-athletes and staff, the Cal Athletics Fund congratulates the more than 125 graduating student-athletes in 2018 for their tremendous achievement in earning degrees from the best public university in the world. Go Bears!

The 2018 student-athlete graduating class in the University Club following General Commencement on May 12.

From men’s basketball, Cole Welle, Marcus Lee, Kingsley Okoroh and Derek King

From football, Derron Brown, Kamryn Bennett, Vic Wharton III, Chase Forrest and Addison Ooms

From volleyball, Carmen Annevelink, Christine Alftin, Caihla Petiprin and Jessica Gaffney

From men’s swimming, Connor Hoppe, Nick Silverthorn, Ryan Kao, Long Guti-errez, Justin Lynch and Kyle Coan

From women’s crew, Katie Kelly, Katie De Haas and Hannah Christopher

Nick Hamilton (men’s basketball), Natan Wegrzycki-Szymczyk (men’s rowing) and Teya Neff (beach volley-ball) were invited to sit on the dais during General Commencement as recipients of the Jake Gimbel Prize and Anna Espenschade Award.

From women’s golf, Alice Jeong and Marthe Wold

On June 13, Under Armour and Cal Athletics held a welcome reception for Director of Athletics Jim Knowlton at Under Armour Connected Fitness in San Francisco.

In his first events as Cal’s new Director of Athletics, Jim Knowlton attended the Cal Foot-ball Summer Huddle events in Los Angeles and Orange County on May 22-23, where he was accompanied Cal football head coach Justin Wilcox.

Cal Athletics Receptions Welcoming New Cal AD Jim Knowlton

Student-Athlete Graduation Reception

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The panel for the ESPNW Campus Conver-sation featured (from left) ESPN reporter Shelley Smith, Natalie Coughlin (swimming), Monica Wiley (basketball), ESPN producer Sandy Nunez and Anne Simpson (rowing).

Rower Dana Moffat poses a question during the ESPNW event.

Ashten Smith-Gooden (volleyball) and Toni-Ann Williams (gymnastics)

Women’s soccer student-athletes (clockwise from top left) - Miranda Nild, Maggie Bell, Anja Koehler, Olivia Sekany, Mia Corbin, Kayla Fong, Caroline Clark and Luca Deza

Women’s gymnasts (from left) - Chelsea Shu, Cassidy Keelen, Kyana George and Emi Watterson

Cal Hosts ESPNW Campus Conversation

More than 150 Golden Bear student-athletes, coaches and staff filled the dining room at the Simpson Center on April 30 to participate in a special event that offered advice and guidance for women after they complete their collegiate athletic careers.

The ESPNW Campus Conver-sation, a series that is making its way to universities across the country, featured three for-mer Cal student-athletes on a panel who shared stories about their career journeys and recommended steps today’s

student-athletes can take to at-tain postgraduate success. Na-talie Coughlin ’04 (swimming), Anne Simpson ’78 (rowing) and Monica Wiley ’92 (basketball) were joined by ESPN reporter Shelley Smith and ESPN pro-ducer Sandy Nunez.

“Find what you’re passionate about and say yes to opportuni-ties, even if they’re scary,” said Coughlin, a 12-time Olympic medalist who has transitioned into a number of different ven-tures. “Look beyond your sport and always have a plan B.”

Wiley, now a San Francisco Superior Court judge, added: “The things you are doing now are valuable. And having a Cal degree will open doors for you.”

Simpson became one of the first female pilots for North-west Airlines, breaking into the field when few opportunities for women existed.

“I graduated in 1978,” Simp-son said. “There’s a lot of life after Cal and after your sport, but your years here will give you so many tools to succeed.”

STUDENT-ATHLETE DEVELOPMENT


Courtney Hendrickson is no stranger to saving.The former Cal field hockey goalkeep-

er was the 2013 NorPac Defensive Play-er of the Year and logged 269 career saves in 56 appearances on her rise from Cal walk-on to team captain with a full athletic scholarship.

These days, she’s doing a different type of saving.

Cal’s recipient of a Pac-12 Postgrad-uate Scholarship, Hendrickson is pas-sionate about environmental conser-vation. She was recently accepted into Oregon State, where she’ll begin work-

ing toward her Ph.D. in amphibian disease and aquatic conserva-tion biology.

The San Diego product has long been a fan of the natural world and animals, especially amphibians, which includes frogs, toads and salamanders. Even as a small child, Hendrickson remembers feeling overwhelmed with curiosity as she ventured to a small park near her house with a stream filled with tadpoles in the summer.

“It was this feeling of connection that was hard to articulate,” Hendrickson explained. “You could start on a big scale and see the whole landscape and just be totally over-whelmed. Then you could go further down the scale until you flipped over a tiny leaf to see a couple of ants carrying something five times their size. You could look at any scale and find something absolutely beautiful.”

When she got to Cal, Hendrickson initially decided to explore human psychology, but a conservation-based environmental science class sent her on the path of wildlife re-search.

“After taking that class, I was so angry,” Hendrickson said. “I was so upset because it felt like no one with the power to make significant policy and legislative change was doing anything. We love this place. Doesn’t everybody love this place?”

She switched her focus to environmental science, graduating as a double major in geography and conservation and resource studies, cultivating her interdisciplinary emphasis in the direction of wildlife conservation.

Hendrickson currently serves as a trail steward for the Marin County Open Space District (MCOSD), where she restores unsus-tainable nature trails through replanting, conducting animal and plant surveys, and monitoring path use. However, it was in her research role with the UC Berkeley Department of Environmen-tal Science, Policy and Management’s Rosenblum Lab where she discovered her fascination for the world of emerging infectious disease (EID) research.

“Frogs and amphibians generally are very vulnerable to disease and changes in their ecosystem because of their permeable skin, and they absorb a lot of their en-vironment directly through their skin,” she said. “Every stone you turned over, there were 20 other stones under it, and so many unanswered ques-tions revolving around disease.”

In September, Hendrickson will head to Corval-lis, Ore., where she’ll work with labs from Oregon State’s Integrative Biology and Fisheries and Wild-life departments. Rather than add to conservation literature, she hopes her research can be imple-mented in present-day amphibian conservation ef-forts to be used in the field as soon as possible.

“Frogs are declining at unprecedented rates. The immediacy of it is inspiring and terrifying,” Hendrickson said. “These creatures sparked my fascination as a child and the thought that my children or other people’s children might not know what a frog is or have ever seen a frog in the wild in the next 20 years is scary.”

Courtney Hendrickson

Experience in research roles and through field work inspired Courtney Hendrickson to study emerging infectious diseases in amphibians.

C a p t a i n P l a n e tFormer Field Hockey Captain Courtney Hendrickson Driven by Passion for Ecological Conservation

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Justin Dunn’s rugby career at the University of California was relatively brief, spanning just one autumn and two springs. But the 6-4, 200-pound wing accomplished a lot in that time, transitioning from his experience as a gridiron Golden Bear, which was halted

by injury, to the rugby pitch, where he ended 2017-18 as Cal’s top scorer in 15-a-side play and was named a first-team USA Rugby 7s All-American.

A CHAMPION for

OTHERSJustin Dunn’s Cal Career

Highlighted by Community Service

BY ANTON MALKO

recognized in May by the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics as co-recipient of the Walter A. Haas Jr. Community Service Award.

The Haas Award is named for the patri-arch of Levi Strauss & Co. who graduated from Cal in 1937 and in whose memory Haas Pavilion was renamed following its 1999 renovation. This year’s award went to exceedingly deserving co-recipients in Dunn and volleyball’s Ashten Smith-Gooden.

Dunn served as a Haas prospective stu-dent advisor in one of his many service- oriented pursuits, helping fellow students with their class schedules, applications and essays in their effort to join him in the business school. As an underclassman, Dunn was a SAGE Mentor at John Muir Elementary School, where he promoted the value and pursuit of higher education. He was a founder and president of Young Life College Club, which focused on building a

strong community of students emphasizing acceptance and service of others, and a member of Athletes in Action, for which he served the last of his four years at the organization as its president.

“My parents named me Justin because of its root, just, meaning fair and equita-ble,” Dunn said of Steve and his mother, Wendy. “My desire to serve is not for a ré-sumé. It’s because I care about other peo-ple and it makes me really happy and filled with joy when I can help and serve others.”

Dunn also faced serious health challeng-es during his collegiate career that failed to deter him from his commitments. As a sophomore, after successfully reviving a dormant Bible Study group on the team, Dunn sought treatment for ongoing respi-ratory trouble and found himself in the hospital for weeks undergoing two lung surgeries, which left him bedridden from a period of months.

“It was frustrating and a tough time in my life,” Dunn recalled. “I had four lung collapses before the fifth one led to a spe-cialist. Being in the hospital for weeks, not being able to breathe efficiently, with tubes in me, laying in bed unable to walk or play, gave me a lot of perspective. Once I could walk again, once I could breathe, once I

Athletics are a big part of his family’s connections to Cal, which span four gen-erations. Dunn’s father, Steve, threw a key block in 1982 to help spring The Play; grandparents Lou and Roger Dunn are both Class of 1955; great grandfather Emery Curtice set a U.S. record in the javelin as captain of the track & field team in 1929; and Justin never missed a home football game before joining the team as a wide re-ceiver out of Campolindo High School.

“I heard all the stories growing up from my father’s teammates,” Dunn said. “A fre-quent theme was the commitment they all had to each other. Hearing that was trans-formative for me as a young kid.”

As an undergraduate in the Haas School of Business, where he was admitted as a junior and from which he earned his degree this spring, Dunn prioritized academics just as highly. Above all else, however, he put community service first. For that, Dunn was

SUMMER 2018 31

could go out and do things, I remembered all those people who had been there for me when I couldn’t do anything. That is a motivation, to pay that forward.”

During this dire period, Dunn said, “I had to rely on my faith. I could barely move.” He also relied on family. “A family adage we have is when you’re committed to some-thing, you’re committed to it,” he said. “Whatever it is, if I committed to it, I’m going to stick to it.”

Dunn had begun the appli-cation process to Haas prior to his surgeries and remained steadfast during his health scares. When he was accept-ed, he seized the opportunity to use his experience at Haas as a platform to be of even greater service to others.

“I discovered a phrase last year from Mahatma Gandhi that says, ‘The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others,’” Dunn said. “That’s the way I’ve tried to live my life. I found myself by doing all these things. My identity is rooted in how I can serve others.”

In Haas, Dunn helped to found and run the startup SmileyGo, a grants manage-ment software platform that connects non-profits with corporations to facilitate corporate philanthropy and grants, en route to earning an Entrepreneurship and Technology Certification from UC Berkeley distinct from his Haas degree.

Dunn also helped initiate and coordinate an annual volleyball tournament in honor of fraternity brother, Tim Vorenkamp, who died of synovial sarcoma during Dunn’s sophomore year. The event continues to support the “To Live for Others” Founda-tion, which raises money for children with the disease.

Having chosen to end his gridiron career following the lung surgeries, Dunn revived his athletic pursuits when he joined the rugby program as a junior. It was the first time he had picked up a rugby ball since childhood, when he spent a couple of sea-sons as a youth player.

Although the learning curve with Cal rug-by was steep, Dunn was happy to contrib-ute to the team’s success both on and off the field. His gratitude was mutually felt by rugby head coach Jack Clark.

“Justin Dunn is a fantastic ambassador not just for the Cal community, but the global community,” Clark said. “He strives

for excellence from a foundation of high integrity and concern for others. We are proud to call him ours.”

“It was blessing to play Cal rugby, an amazing opportunity” Dunn said. “What I learned on and off the field and in the meet-ing room about team values, gratitude, mer-itocracy — those are valuable lessons.”

Perhaps a connection can be drawn

between Dunn’s can-do attitude and his father’s involvement in The Play, the most famous event in the history of Cal Athletics

With Cal down 20-19 and Stanford look-ing to kick off and make one final tackle to win the 1982 Big Game, Steve Dunn, a defensive back, recognized that the Bears had only 10 players on the field for the kick return. Seconds after he talked his way onto the “hands” team and buckled his chin strap, Dunn made one of the first blocks to allow the five-lateral masterpiece to unfold.

“There are parallels in the way that he dealt with that type of a situation,” Justin Dunn said. “He’s not supposed to be out there but he sees the opportunity, because he’s paying attention. Then he’s confident enough to say, ‘I’m in, I can do this.’ That has been a life lesson for me.”

“The Play is a fun reminder of what can happen,” Steve Dunn said. “It resulted from teammates never giving in, believing in the moment and trusting each other. At a young age, Justin was taught by his moth-er and me the importance of completing whatever task he started. We could not be prouder of the young man he has become.”

Justin Dunn is well prepared to excel in the future, whatever he does and wherever he goes. And no matter the direction life’s road takes him, he knows one thing: “This community has a very special place in my heart. Always and forever, Go Bears!”

“I DISCOVERED A PHRASE LAST YEAR FROM MAHATMA GANDHI THAT SAYS, ‘THE BEST WAY TO FIND YOURSELF IS TO LOSE YOURSELF IN THE SERVICE OF OTHERS.’ THAT’S THE WAY I’VE TRIED TO LIVE MY LIFE. I FOUND MYSELF BY DOING ALL THESE THINGS. MY IDENTITY IS ROOTED IN HOW I CAN SERVE OTHERS.”

– JUSTIN DUNN

(Left) Justin Dunn with volleyball’s Ashten Smith-Gooden, co-recipients of the Walter A. Haas Jr. Community Service Award; (below left) with grandparents Lou and Roger Dunn, both Class of 1955, at the Big C Awards Banquet; (bottom left) with parents, Steve ’84 and Wendy Dunn, at his senior rugby banquet.


The daily drill for collegiate student-ath-letes across the country comes right out of a very predictable playbook.

Class, practice, study, compete, repeat. Call it the contrarian tendencies of a good

Cal student or simply the ability to seize an opportunity, but Golden Bear athletes are working to add an entry to that script.

A program designed to give student-ath-letes an up-close look into businesses across the Bay Area is well underway thanks to the efforts of the Cal Student-Ath-lete Development office. The first field trip of the 2017-18 school year took a group of Golden Bears to the Pac-12 Network stu-dio and offices in San Francisco, and Cal student-athletes got a chance to interact and network with executives and staff as well as on-air personalities from the confer-ence’s flagship television entity.

With trip No. 2, the program’s reach got a little wider. A group of nearly 20 students and staff ventured into Silicon Valley to tour Google headquarters, meeting at 6:45 a.m. under dark skies outside California Memorial Stadium and making the trek to Mountain View to take a look at what a day really looks like for one of the world’s most recognizable and influential companies.

Not surprisingly, the trip’s genesis came as a product of the vast Cal Athletics alumni network. Google Vice President of People Operations and Chief

Bay Area AdvantageField Trip Program Helps Student-Athletes Gain Valuable Insight into Career Opportunities

Culture Officer Stacy Savides-Sullivan, a Cal women’s tennis donor and alumna, helped CalDirector of Student-Athlete De-velopment Bobby Thompson arrange the day, putting the Bears in touch with Google University Programs Specialist Mary Kate McHugh and Google MBA Programs Spe-cialist Tanya Choudhury.

“This is Google, one of the places I want-ed to go on one of these field trips and I didn’t have a connection there,” Thompson said. “I asked one of our student-athletes (women’s tennis player Karla Popovic) if she would introduce me to Stacy via email and she happily did so. I introduced myself, student-athlete development and what we

Cal student-athletes toured the Google campus before spending time with Vice President of People Operations and Chief Culture Officer Stacy Savides-Sullivan, a Cal alumna and former women’s tennis player.

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do and described this program we were trying to roll out. Immediately, I had her buy-in. She connected me with a couple people who do this on a daily basis at Google and the rest was history.”

After meeting briefly to go over the day’s events, McHugh and Choudhury led Cal student-athletes and staff on a tour of Goo-gle’s central campus. Among the highlights was a stop for photos with an Oreo statue, placed right in the middle of campus to highlight Google’s newest mobile operating system, as well as other purposely placed art designed to promote creativity and in-novation among the Google workforce.

Walking through campus and mingling with the Google workforce provided Cal stu-dent-athletes with an idea of what a normal work day looked like, exposing the group to a valuable piece of professional life.

“I’ve heard a lot of things about Google and what the office culture is like and to see that firsthand is really cool,” men’s swimmer Ryan Kao said. “Being able to see what Google is actually about and be-ing able to take a tour was awesome.”

After the tour, the Bears returned to their initial classroom setting to hear di-rectly from Savides-Sullivan in a keynote address that challenged the group to stay open-minded and positive when it comes to planning for the future.

A panel discussion with former colle-giate student-athletes now working at Goo-gle provided another opportunity for ques-tions, and the day concluded with an inside look into what a company like Google looks for when interviewing potential additions to their workforce.

“It’s an incredible opportunity both ways,” Savides-Sullivan said. “I always think that athletes have a total advantage in the working environment because of their grit and dedication and work ethic and loyalty to their teams. They may or may not ever be interested in working for a high-tech company, but I think it’s an awesome opportunity to come and at least hear about what it’s all about and start thinking about it early on, even as a freshman or sophomore, to see if it’s something that’s going to be inspiring.”

That message resonated particularly for women’s tennis senior Audrey Mayer, who knew of Savides-Sullivan thanks to her connection with the program.

“It’s really inspiring. She was in the same sorority I am when she was at Cal,” May-er said. “It’s really cool seeing someone in her position that was doing the same things as me in college. It’s inspiring to see somebody like that and cool to aspire to be somebody like that someday.”

Another field trip took Cal student-ath-letes to Square, Inc., a financial services and mobile payment company based in San Francisco. A pair of Cal lacrosse grad-uates, Julie Crowell and Isabella Huther, helped host the Bears for a day that includ-ed a tour and a roundtable discussion that centered on the transition from college, and specifically college athletics, to the professional arena.

In much the same way the trip to Google provided a glimpse into how the profes-sional world works, visiting Square provid-ed more insight into the corporate culture that fuels modern offices. The casual work space stood out, and the sight of employ-ees munching on cereal during meetings offered an example of a new culture that has become prevalent in offices through-out the Bay Area.

The message imparted upon the visiting student-athletes mirrored that of the first two stops. Crowell and Huther, along with Square colleagues Sirrah Williams and An-drew Voorheis, stressed the importance of being proactive when it comes to taking the next step in an academic or profession-al journey. Whether that means meeting

with professors as a freshman or setting up informational interviews as a senior, the drive to work towards a goal stood out as a common theme throughout the visit.

As all three trips took place, Thompson found himself fielding questions from stu-dent-athletes eager to participate in future excursions. He continues to work towards setting up more trips in the future and mak-ing the program a lasting piece of Cal’s stu-dent-athlete experience.

“I’m really big on perspective. The per-spective they have right now is as a college kid and a student-athlete,” Thompson said. “If they don’t do as well in a competition or on a homework assignment or test, they take that very personally and it’s hard to see the big picture because they’re still in this bubble of college. The moment they graduate and they are able to look back, they’ll say ‘why was I tripping on that one class or that one assignment?’ To be able to be on these cam-puses rubbing elbows with people who work at Google or Pac-12 Network or Square, walk in hallways and open spaces and feel it and experience it, they can’t ever un-see that. Now, it’s etched in their mind that maybe this is something I want to be a part of. Or maybe it’s not, and that’s not a bad thing either.”

Cal student-athletes also took trips to the Pac-12 Network (pictured) and Square, Inc. during the 2017-18 academic year.

SUMMER 2018 35

Growing up in Seattle, Ellen Heile was always drawn to the Elliott Bay Seawall – an engineering marvel

protecting the city’s waterfront. Hoping to eventually work on such projects her-self, Heile headed to Cal in the fall of 2014, determined to graduate with a degree in civil and environmental engi-neering while also competing on one of the top crews in the nation.

“I knew I was coming to the best row-ing program in the country and the best engineering program in the country,”

said Heile, who recently completed her senior season for the Gold-en Bears. “That was part of what drew me here – knowing it was going to be such a challenge.”

As a freshman, Heile was pushed in both areas, balancing the rigors of a demanding course load with the daily competition in the boathouse. In rowing, Heile had a natural sup-port network with teammates to lean on during early practices and grueling workouts. But in the classroom, Heile felt utterly alone.

“There’s a bit of a stigma in engineering when it comes to being a woman or being an athlete,” Heile admitted. “As a freshman, I definitely lived down to both those expectations. It was really frustrating because I knew I was capable of so much more.”

While the classroom struggles carried into her sophomore fall, a course in the Structure and Properties of Civil Engineering Materials reaffirmed Heile’s passion for engineering and sparked a newfound love for concrete. Committed to improving her performance academically, Heile returned home after fall exams and wrote herself a four-page letter entitled “Goodbye Rowing.”

“I decided that was going to be my last year rowing,” Heile ex-plained. “I needed to prioritize school, but I wasn’t actually doing it. I really didn’t think I could make both work.”

With her mind made up, Heile returned to campus committed to giving her all in her final semester with the team. What resulted was a remarkable season in which Heile dropped 16 seconds from her personal best and earned a spot in the Bears’ second varsity eight, which went on to capture gold at the 2016 NCAA Champion-ships, contributing to Cal’s overall team title.

That success carried into the classroom, where Heile turned her grades around.

“During that season I realized that I really could make both things a priority,” Heile said. “Rowing and school, I didn’t have to pick one, and having both in my life actually helped me excel. I also finally asked for help. There are so many resources at Cal and so many people who want to help you succeed, but you have to seek them out.”

Heile has continued to grow as both a student and athlete over the last two years, gaining valuable experience with research and internships in marine con-struction, and winning a silver medal with the U.S. eight at the 2017 Under-23 World Cham-pionships.

On May 26, 2018, two-and-a-half years after Heile was prepared to say goodbye to the sport for good, she ended her Cal rowing career on the highest note possible, leading the varsity four to a title at the NCAA regatta and clinching another national team title for the Bears.

After four years of growth in the classroom and on the water, Heile is ready to meet the next challenge head on.

“I’m so ready to take on the world,” Heile said. “I know that I can do anything now be-cause of what we’ve been able to do here at Cal.”

Ellen Heile

Ellen Heile celebrates after winning gold at the 2018 NCAA Championships.

Best of Both WorldsEllen Heile Discovers How to Excel in Rowing and Engineering

By MC Barrett

ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT


ACT I SCENE: Asha Culhane-Husain is in

Dublin, Ireland. It’s her junior year at Cal, but she’s studying abroad at the prestigious Gaiety School of Acting, Ire-land’s National Theater School. It is a place that has trained such notable ac-tors as Liam Neeson and Olivia Wilde.

She’s running across Phoenix Park, a field that has featured concerts from Coldplay to Kanye. She’s holding her phone, recording voice memos for class projects. She’s also training to stay in

shape, with the goal of competing in the heptathlon as a senior at Cal. But while she’s doing it, she’s discovering her love of the spoken word. It allows her to put emotion into words.

CULHANE-HUSAIN: “I took a theater class (during her freshman year) because I wanted to get out of a box and who I feel like I am. Track has been that for me, making me uncomfortable. Public speak-ing was another way to do that more academically. I took a class and loved it.”

That’s why Culhane-Husain wanted to go to Ireland. She had one theater class on the side while taking a full load of business classes. However, this was her chance to ex-plore acting more, so she took advantage of it. She spent full days studying acting, move-ment, dance, theater and performing spoken word speeches in front of her ensemble. It’s something she took back to Berkeley.

ACT IISCENE: Culhane-Husain has returned to

Cal. She’s eager to find ways to showcase her newfound passion for the spoken word.

She speaks at the Student-Athlete Aca-demic Honors Luncheon in May 2017 and

the “Women Breaking Barriers” panel featuring Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf in March 2018.

However, acting and public speaking aren’t Culhane-Husain’s only passions. She has also stood out in the Haas School of Busi-ness, earning grades that landed her on the Pac-12 All-Academic team. She was able to combine those passions as the student speaker for the Haas School of Business commencement.

CULHANE-HUSAIN: “I think that being a good actor means you are really good at telling the truth through a different lens. Acting is about taking on an identity of a person that you are not. In order to do that, you have to read the other person or turn into a com-pletely new person in order to do that really well on stage. I think if you are going to start a business or give a presentation, one of the most important things is being able to read the other people in your group or the audience.”

Well-rounded in the classroom, you wouldn’t expect anything different athletically from her. Culhane-Husain competed in the grueling seven-event heptath-lon, finishing her career with a personal best as she took 12th at the Pac-12 Championships.

THE NEXT ACT SCENE: Culhane-Husain has graduated

from Cal with a business administration degree and a minor in theater. She won a $10,000 Oscar Geballe Postgraduate Schol-arship, given annually to Cal student-athletes who exemplify the combination of scholarship and competition.

Culhane-Husain’s next step will be to get a mas-ter’s degree in history and literature from Colum-bia University through a program where she visits multiple universities in France. She is brushing up on her French this summer in preparation.

Culhane-Husain isn’t sure what her future holds. But don’t be surprised if you hear about her acting, or performing in spoken word, or if she’s running a company. Maybe all of the above.

Finding Her Truth Asha Culhane-Husain Discovers Her Passion for Acting and the Spoken Word

By Jared Prescott

ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT

Asha Culhane-Husain

Asha Culhane-Husain has earned an Oscar Geballe Postgraduate Scholarship to continue her studies at Columbia University.

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