Cougars & Mustangs 

Who knew horses could swim so well? The Mustangs are once again making a major splash in the pool. The Cal Poly Women's Water Polo Club recently won the Pacific Coast Division Championship and advanced to the Collegiate Water Polo Association National Championships.

The Mustangs, the three-time defending club water polo national champions, are the tournament’s No. 1 seed and will open play against Miami (Ohio) on Friday, May 6, in Notre Dame, Indiana.

With a reputation for educating some of the brightest minds in the architecture world, it comes as no surprise that Cal Poly’s newest student housing complex was recently recognized as best new development.

Poly Canyon Village has been honored with the Innovator Award by Student Housing Business Magazine. The honor was given to Poly Canyon Village architectural designer Niles Bolton Associates for the category of Best New Development: On-Campus.

Poly Canyon Village boasts 615 apartments with 2,661 beds, as well as 1,926 parking spaces and 11,255 square feet of retail space. (Dormie STD statistics were unavailable.)

And the awards keep rolling in as Cal Poly’s student newspaper, the Mustang Daily, was named College Newspaper of the Year at the College Newspaper Business and Advertising Manager (CNBAM) National Convention.

This is the third consecutive year the paper has earned the title. A pair of Mustang Daily staffers captured personnel awards: Giana Ronzani took home Advertising Manager of the Year honors and Jaclyn DeMartini was awarded Advertising Designer of the Year.

Over at the SLO County community college, Cuesta recognized track and field athletes Paul Denlinger and Kasey Urman as its male and female Athletes of the Month, respectively.

With a time of 9:26.45, Denlinger broke Cuesta’s 3,000-meter steeplechase record set in 1981 by Matt Armbruster. He also ranks second in the 3K (8:56.78), fourth in the 5K (15:07.12), and 10th in the mile (4:01.36) among Cuesta runners.

Urman, 2010 All-Western State Conference First Team honoree, set a new Cuesta record in the steeplechase (11:26.97)—surpassing 2005 All State steepler Clare Nowel’s mark by more than 20 seconds. Urman also ranks fifth in the mile (4:47.07) and eighth in the 800-meter (2:21.02).

Contributor Kai Beech can be reached via Managing Editor Ashley Schwellenbach at [email protected].