Director of Athletics Jeff Martinez announced yesterday that
senior track & field standout Natalie Calderon (Pasadena, CA)
and senior tennis player Eric Wagar (Yakima, WA) were named the
2008 Frank Serrao Student-Athletes of the Year. Given in honor of
longtime football coach Frank Serrao, this award acknowledges the
top male and top female student-athletes who best exemplify strong
academic and athletic success at the University of Redlands.
Calderon boasts a 3.797 cumulative GPA while majoring in
Communicative Disorders. This season, she helped the Bulldog
women’s track & field team win the Southern California
Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) Championship for the
first time since 1978. This Dean’s List member alone
accounted for 68 of Redlands’ 131 points by winning the
Triple Jump, Long Jump, 100m Dash, 200m Dash, and 100m Hurdles, and
contributing to the first-place showing of the 4x400m Relay and the
second-place finish of the 4x100m Relay. This member of Omicron
Delta Kappa National Leadership Honors Society was named the SCIAC
Track & Field Female Athlete of the Year for the
second-consecutive season. In addition, Calderon currently owns the
Redlands records as well as the best Division III performances of
the season in the Long Jump and Triple Jump, gaining NCAA Automatic
Qualifying marks. Last year, she won the NCAA Championship in the
Long Jump while taking fourth in the Triple Jump. She heads to the
University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh, on May 22 to defend her title.
Finally, Calderon has been nominated for the prestigious NCAA
Postgraduate Scholarship for spring sports.
With plans to attend dental school in the fall, Wagar offers a
cumulative GPA of 3.874 as a Chemistry major and Biology minor. As
a four-year member of the men’s tennis team, he has helped
the Bulldogs advance onto the NCAA Championships every year of his
career. During the 2008 season, Wagar provided a singles record of
25-4 at the #2 spot and advanced onto the NCAA Individual
Championships, which begin Friday at Bates College (ME). In
doubles, he competed at the #1 spot, garnering a mark of 17-13. A
two-time recipient of the prestigious Jim Verdieck Coach’s
Award, Wagar was honored with the 2008 ITA Arthur Ashe Award for
Sportsmanship and Leadership for the West Region with possible
national recognition still to come. In addition, this two-time
All-SCIAC performer was a finalist for the highly-acclaimed Walter
Byers Scholarship and has been nominated for the NCAA Postgraduate
Scholarship. After landing on the Dean’s List every semester
of his career, Wagar’s impressive academic accolades
culminated in election to the Phi Beta Kappa honor society.
Calderon and Wagar will be presented with their awards at the
University of Redlands Honors Convocation on Friday, May 23, at 10
a.m.