Sheila SobchikBoth are humble, unassuming and the cream of the crop in the Big West Conference.
And on Tuesday night, Phillip Reid and Lisa Modglin shared another distinction – 2006-07 Athletes of the Year at Cal Poly.
The announcements were made Tuesday night at the 25th annual Night of the Mustang awards banquet at the Embassy Suites Hotel in San Luis Obispo.
Reid, a junior distance runner, was an All-American for the cross country team in the fall. Last Saturday at the Big West Conference Championships, he won the 1,500-meter run in 3 minutes, 42.54 seconds to break a meet record that had stood since 1978 by more than a second.
Modglin, a senior center fielder for the softball team, finished the regular season second nationally among all Division I players in both batting average (.488) and slugging percentage (.951). She was the catalyst behind a landmark season in which the Mustangs won their first Big West title ever and reached the NCAA Tournament for the first time since moving to the Division I level in 1995.
“It means everything,” Reid said of the award. “It’s something that you can’t really train for. It’s not something you go out there (with) like a goal. It’s incredible. It’s an awesome award. I really appreciate it.”
Modglin, who arrived in Provo, Utah, on Tuesday where Cal Poly opens regional play today, found out about the award by receiving text messages from friends who attended the event.
“I really didn’t expect it that much,” Modglin said in a phone interview. “I was pretty excited. It’s cool at this time because we’re at regionals.”
Reid deflected praise to his teammates, who helped the Mustangs take 13th at the NCAA Championships in cross country last November. He was 21st individually.
That sense of team was echoed by Reid’s head coaches, Mark Conover in cross country and Terry Crawford in track and field. They also considered themselves fortunate to have landed Reid at the end of the recruiting process.
“Phillip came here highly regarded,” Conover told the crowd. “As a coach, when you acquire an athlete of that talent, it’s a daunting task to not screw it up.”
Crawford added: “He picked Cal Poly over many schools, because like his dad said, ‘it was his kind of place.’ He has ran with commitment and for his team.”
Reid’s meet-record 1,500 time of 3:42.54 sent shockwaves through the running world. Its previous holder, UC Irvine’s Steve Scott, became a three-time Olympian and is an icon in the sport.
And he’s done all this by rehabilitating from a stress fracture in his right femur suffered in the spring of 2005 that kept him sidelined for five months.
“It solidified my love for track,” Reid said of the rehabilitation. “It took it back to that basic level. For me, it was kind of that re-birth of running.”
Reid said it might have helped in winning the award by competing in both the fall and spring.
“Technically, we have two sports,” he said. “It maybe would have been different if I didn’t have as much success in cross country season.”
Reid has already qualified for the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials in the 1,500.
“I want to make the National Team,” said Reid, who will compete at the NCAA West Regional Meet in Eugene, Ore., from May 25 to 26. “I think I have a good chance.”
Perhaps the most powerful quote from Tuesday’s banquet was addressed to Reid from Conover, whose wife Kelly gave birth last weekend to triplets – two girls and one boy.
“I hope my boy is half the man that you are, and I mean that,” Conover told the crowd.
Modglin said it helped her by staying in San Luis Obispo last summer – something she hadn’t done previously – and working out with a club team called the Sliders.
“It gave me a lot more at-bats and that probably helped,” Modglin said.
The awards were voted upon by a committee of coaches and administrators within Cal Poly’s athletics department.
Modglin became the first softball player to take Athlete of the Year since Desarie Knipfer won consecutive awards from 1997-98.
The other candidates Modglin beat out were (in alphabetical order): sophomore volleyball outside hitter Kylie Atherstone, golf sophomore Hannah Brabb, track and field junior high jumper/heptathlete Sharon Day, cross country freshman Kimberly Donatelli, senior basketball forward Jessica Eggleston, tennis senior Carol Erickson, senior soccer defender Heidi McQuitty and junior swimmer Stacey Sorensen.
Reid is the first track athlete to receive Athlete of the Year since Tyrone Ward shared the honor with Varnie Dennis (basketball) in 2003.
Reid beat out (in alphabetical order): tennis senior Matt Baca, junior baseball right fielder Grant Desme, freshman golfer Geoff Gonzalez, freshman swimmer Carter Richards, senior football linebacker Kyle Shotwell, senior basketball forward Derek Stockalper, 133-pound wrestling senior Darrell Vasquez and senior soccer defender Eric Ward.
Cal Poly also announced its 2006-07 Scholar-Athletes – senior football linebacker Justen Peek (civil engineering) and senior swimmer Danielle Torre (history).
Big West Scholar-Athlete honors went to Eggleston and men’s soccer senior defender K.J. Lenehan.