Cal Poly Cross Country program dominated the end-of-season Big West Conference awards on Wednesday as the Mustangs took home five of the six yearly awards.
This marks the second straight year they’ve done so while they recorded their third consecutive sweep of the Big West Championships.
It was a clean sweep for the men, as graduate student Davis Bove again won Big West Men’s Athlete of the Year, redshirt freshman Rory Catsimanes won Men’s Freshman of the Year and Director of Track & Field and Cross Country Ryan Vanhoy was named Men’s Coach of the Year.
This marks the second consecutive year the Mustang men have swept the conference awards and the eighth time overall.
For the women, senior Schuyler Gooley took home Big West Women’s Athlete of the Year, while head coach Michelle Chewens was awarded Women’s Coach of the Year.
Vanhoy and Chewens have swept the coaches’ awards for three straight years, becoming only the second school in Big West history.
Davis Bove – Big West Men’s Athlete of the Year
With back-to-back Big West Men’s Athlete of the Year awards, Bove becomes the 10th repeat winner and the fifth in Mustang history.
The praise comes after another incredible season for Bove, as he ran to his second Big West men’s individual title with an 8K time of 23:51.3.
After claiming the individual conference title, he ran his final collegiate race at the NCAA West Regional, where he took 38th place overall.
It marks the end of a fantastic career as both a Mustang and a Louisiana State Tiger, as the Franklin, Tenn. native finishes his cross-country career as a three-time All-Region honoree.
Bove is out of eligibility for cross country and track and field, but he will finish his master’s in business analytics at Cal Poly and continue running at a highly competitive level.
Rory Catsimanes – Big West Men’s Freshman of the Year
After redshirting at UC San Diego and transferring to Cal Poly over the summer, Catsimanes’ decision to run for the Mustangs paid off.
He earned All-Big West honors at the conference championship race, placing sixth with a personal best in the 8K of 23:59.1
After a standout race at the Big West conference meet, Catsimanes continued his stellar running with a 45th-place finish at the NCAA West Regionals. He was the third Mustang to cross the finish line with a 10K personal best of 29:59.9.
The San Clemente, Calif. native is the second straight Mustang to win the award, as sophomore Chris Caudillo won last year.
Catsimanes, the younger brother to senior Hana Catsimanes on the women’s cross country team, is the 11th Mustang distance runner to win overall.
Ryan Vanhoy – Big West Men’s Coach of the Year
Vanhoy brings home the Coach of the Year title for the third straight year after leading the men to their third consecutive conference title and 20th overall.
After nine years at Ole Miss, Vanhoy has built a dominant culture here at Cal Poly since being named program director in 2022.
The Mustangs swept the podium at the conference championships, following that performance up with an eighth-place finish at the NCAA West Regionals.
Vanhoy has now led the men to back-to-back eighth-place finishes at regionals, tying for their best result since seventh place in 2013.
So far, two runners have made it to the NCAA Cross Country National Championships, with Jake Ritter placing 90th at the meet in 2022.
Schuyler Gooley – Big West Women’s Athlete of the Year
Gooley capped off her career as a Mustang with a first-place finish at the Big West Championships, crossing the finish line at 19:47.7 for the 6K.
With the individual crown, she became Cal Poly women’s first Big West individual champion since 2019.
She followed that up by placing 30th at the NCAA West Regional meet.
The Hopkinton, Mass. native is just the fourth women’s athlete in Cal Poly history to claim the Athlete of the Year title and the first since 2019.
Michelle Chewens – Big West Women’s Coach of the Year
Chewens continues to make history at Cal Poly, becoming the first female coach in conference history to win the award three times.
This year, she helped the women secure their third straight conference title, becoming only the third women’s team in Big West history to accomplish the feat.
The Mustangs cruised to a three-peat, finishing with 33 points. It’s the second-best score by Cal Poly at the conference meet ever.
Chewens led the women to their second consecutive eighth-place finish at regionals, coaching junior Tatiana Cornejo to All-West Region honors once again.
Cornejo placed 25th at the meet, becoming Cal Poly’s first multiple-time All-Region honoree since Peyton Bilo in 2015-2016.