Although they are already two of the most accomplished athletes in Cal Poly history, Melissa Pura and Ramses Barden grabbed one more honor Tuesday evening when they were named Cal Poly’s 2008-09 Athletes of the Year at the annual Night of the Mustang banquet and awards ceremony Tuesday night at Embassy Suites.
Barden became the fourth football player to win the award in the past six years following defensive end Chris Gocong (2006), linebacker Jordan Beck (2005) and cornerback David Richardson (2004).
Pura became just the second softball honoree in 11 years. Outfielder Lisa Modglin won in 2007.
Both players helped bring their team’s to their highest point at the Division I level. Barden caught 67 passes for 1,257 yards and 18 touchdowns (tying his own school record) last season. He caught at least one touchdown in all 11 games this season, tying an NCAA mark for consecutive touchdown catches in a single season set by Randy Moss.
Barden was named offensive player of the year in the Great West Conference for the second straight year and was named to the All-Great West first team four times. He finished fourth in the balloting for the Walter Payton Award, given to the Football Championship Subdivision’s best offensive player.
He helped lead the Mustangs to an 8-3 record and a program-high No. 3 ranking in the FCS polls. The Mustangs were within seconds of an undefeated regular season losing to both Montana and Big-10’s Wisconsin in the final moments.
Pura leaves as Cal Poly’s career leader for home runs (34), RBI (135) and slugging percentage (.583).
She had one of the best single seasons in program history this year as she finished as the only conference player to rank among the top 10 performers for batting average (.370), slugging percentage (.571), on-base percentage (.441), hits (57), homers (seven), RBI (32), runs (33) and total bases (88).
Pura was at her best in dangerous situations. She hit a team-best .415 (22-for-53) with runners in scoring position and .360 (32-for-89) with runners on base while 20 of her 32
RBI occurred with two outs.
Barden and Pura also drew praise at the professional level. The New York Giants took Barden in the third round of the NFL draft while Pura was taken with the fourth round of the National Pro Fastpitch Senior Draft by the Akron Racers.
Other male athletes nominated for the Athlete of the Year award were baseball second baseman Adam Buschini, basketball forward Titus Shelton, cross country runner Daniel Gonia, golfer Geoff Gonzalez, soccer goalkeeper Eric Branagan-Franco, swimmer Peter Kline, tennis player Drew Jacobs, track and field decathlete James Nunno and wrestler Chase Pami.
Female athletes nominated for the award were basketball forward Megan Harrison, cross country runner Bridie McCarey, golfer Stephanie Yocum, soccer defender Carrie Andrews, swimmer Lacey Buck, tennis player Brittany Blalock, indoor and outdoor track and field thrower Julie Dufresne and volleyball opposite Kylie Atherstone.
Other athletes honored at the banquet included baseball senior outfielder Ryan Lee and junior women’s tennis player Steffi Wong who were named Cal Poly’s Big West Conference scholar-athletes.
Cal Poly’s Scholar-Athletes for the 2008-09 school year are Leif Anderson of cross country and track and field and Caitlin Lee of women’s swimming. Anderson is a biomedical engineering junior while Lee, a distance freestyler, is a kinesiology sophomore.
Cal Poly’s nominations for the NCAA Leadership Conference were wrestler Eric Maldonado, men’s soccer centerback Josh Didion, volleyball defensive specialist Caitlin Suttich and women’s basketball guard Tamara Wells. Maldonado has been selected to represent Cal Poly at the conference.
The baseball team was also recognized by the Big West Conference, earning a team sportsmanship award.