May 28, 2015

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Where is Kristin Smart?

Olivia DeGennaro, Special to Mustang News

19 years later, Cal Poly student still missing

JULIAN DEL GAUDIO | COURTESY PHOTO MEMORIAL | Kristin Smart, who disappeared in 1996 as a Cal Poly freshman, is memorialized at Dinosaur Caves Park in Pismo Beach. Next to a plaque with her image (above), another plaque hosts a poem she wrote.

N

ineteen years.

That’s how long it’s been since anyone has seen or talked to Kristin Denise Smart. That’s nearly 76 Cal Poly quarters.

Nineteen years. That’s also how old the Cal Poly freshman was when she was reportedly last seen walking toward her Muir Hall dorm room.

Like thousands of students this spring, Smart was set to finish her first year of college, and summer break loomed just weeks away.

But Smart would never see the end of the 1996 school year.

Who was Kristin Smart?

Purple flowers line the pathway leading to two wooden benches at Dinosaur Caves Park in Pismo Beach. They sit near the edge of a tall bluff, overlooking the sea.

Next to one bench, the face of a 6-foot-1 blonde with dark eyes is etched into a plaque. The name “Kristin Denise Smart” reads under it. A poem written by Smart is inscribed on a plaque next to the other bench, describing her love for the ocean.

“I face into the wind, it purrs and whistles its secrets into my ear.

Under the sun, floating upon the salty waters, I cringe with excitement to be in such a heavenly place.”

H e r m o t h e r, D e n i s e Smart, said the sea breeze was one of Kristin’s favorite things about living on the Central Coast.

“She had an adventurous travel spirit and an extreme love of being by the ocean,” she said.

Denise said if Kristin had her way, she would have attended college in the Caribbean. She

DENISE SMART | COURTESY PHOTO SEASIDE | One of Kristin’s favorite parts about living on the Central Coast was the sea breeze, her mother said.

IT’S JUST STILL HARD FOR US TO BELIEVE THAT SHE DIDN’T FULFILL HER DREAM. DENISE SMART KRISTIN’S MOTHER

settled on Cal Poly, a closer choice to her hometown, Stockton, California.

Her mother said Kristin was a typical college freshman, with high expectations for what her future would hold. She was an adventure seeker with a zest for life — “she was a dreamer.”

Though she had high aspirations, Kristin was also indecisive. She originally enrolled in Cal Poly as an architecture major because of her love of drawing. Denise said she switched majors immediately, transferring to the communication studies department.

Another one of Kristin’s dreams: traveling the world as a reporter.

“She wanted to be the next Joan Lunden,” Denise said. “It’s just still hard for us to believe that she didn’t fulfill her dream.”

Kristin was undecided when it came to her name as well.

According to a 2006 article in the Los Angeles Times, Kristin signed off her emails with several nicknames, including Marysol, Trixie and Kianna. The night she disappeared, Roxie was her chosen alias.

The Cal Poly freshman was an older sister to the Smarts’ two other children, Matt and Lindsey. Even in her teen years, Kristin was a daddy’s girl, often sitting on Stan Smart’s lap.

Kristin called her mother every Sunday to check in.

When Denise didn’t get her usual phone call at the end of Memorial Day weekend, she began to worry.

see KRISTIN, pg 2.

DENISE SMART | COURTESY PHOTO DADDY’S GIRL | Even as a teenager, Kristin’s was considered a daddy’s girl, often sitting on her father’s lap.

News... 1-3 | Arts... 4-5 | Opinion... 6 | Classifieds... 7 | Sports... 8

Thursday, May 28, 2015

NEWS | 2 KRISTIN continued from pg 1.

Memorial Day weekend, 1996 Kristin began her three-day weekend with a phone call to her family.

“Good news, good news. I’ll call on Sunday.”

The voicemail she left for her mother on the evening of Friday, May 24, would be the last communication she ever had with her family.

Later Friday night, friends dropped Kristin off at 135 Crandall Way, an unofficial fraternity house just feet away from Cal Poly’s campus.

Taking advantage of summer-like temperatures, she wore a cropped gray T-shirt, black surfing shorts and red Puma sneakers.

One of those friends, Margarita Campos, recounted Friday’s events to the San Luis Obispo Tribune.

“I can still see her standing there after we dropped her off, a little mad, I think, that I wouldn’t go with her,” Campos said.

Campos said she told Kristin to be careful.

While some witnesses from the party reported Kristin acting extremely intoxicated, others didn’t report her with a drink at all. Some believe it is possible Kristin was slipped a date rape drug.

No one is certain about what Kristin consumed that night; her body has never been found to perform an autopsy.

WHEN THE PART Y WA S WINDING DOWN AT ABOUT 2 A.M. SATURDAY, THEN-SENIOR TIM DAVIS SPOTTED THE TALL BLONDE LYING ON THE L AWN NEX T DOOR, APPARENTLY PA SSED OUT.

Cheryl Anderson, an acquaintance of Kristin, agreed to help Davis walk her back to Muir Hall.

Paul Flores approached the group and offered to join them. Flores, a freshman and friend of Smart’s, was also leaving the party to head back to Santa Lucia Hall.

When the four students arrived at Cal Poly, Davis parted ways with the others because he lived off campus. Anderson and Flores continued to walk Kristin toward the residence halls on the east side of campus.

Anderson said in a deposition that Kristin made several stops along the way to the red brick residence halls. Flores told Anderson she could go ahead. Anderson said she thought his behavior was odd and waited for the other two to catch up.

Anderson said Flores had his arm around Kristin’s waist and her arms were around his neck. Flores would later confirm to investiga-

tors he had his arm around her because “she was freezing.”

Three became two when Anderson parted ways with Kristin and Flores at the intersection of Grand Avenue and Perimeter Road. Anderson said she double-checked with Flores to make sure he would take Kristin back to her room before she made her way down Grand Avenue toward her Sierra Madre residence hall.

“If you won’t, I will do it. I will walk her to her room,” Anderson said in a deposition. “I didn’t want to have to do it, but, you know, if he didn’t want to do it, I was going to do it.”

WHAT HAPPENED, NO ONE KNOWS ... ONLY PAUL AND ONLY KRISTIN REALLY KNOW. DENISE SMART KRISTIN SMART’S MOTHER

Flores, the only known witness to the events that followed, said he and Kristin made their way up Perimeter Road toward the red brick residence halls.

Flores said he last saw Kristin at the intersection of the walkways leading to their respective residence halls at approximately 2:30 a.m. on May 25, 1996. According to Flores, Kristin walked uphill toward the red brick building.

She hasn’t been seen since.

Denise doesn’t believe her daughter did anything wrong that night. She said whenever Kristin went to parties, she would always let her mother know she got home safely.

“What happened to her could happen to anybody,” she said.

Early investigation Sunday came and went, and Denise did not receive her weekly call. Because Monday was a holiday, she didn’t think it was unusual.

Kristin’s neighbor in the residence halls contacted the University Police Department (UPD) two days after the party, but they did not take a missing persons report, according to the Los Angeles Times. The neighbor persisted, contacting the Smart family and the San Luis Obispo Police Department (SLOPD).

On Monday, May 27, 1996, Denise’s phone rang.

It was a UPD officer asking if the freshman was home with her family.

According to the FBI, UPD took a missing persons report on May 28, three days after anyone last saw her. In the report, Kristin’s roommate, Crystal Calvin, said none of her personal belongings were missing from their residence hall room.

Those included her identification, toiletries,

DENISE SMART | COURTESY PHOTO VANISHED

| Smart was last seen walking back to Muir Hall at about 2:30 a.m. on May 25, 1996.

clothing and other personal items. There is no evidence Kristin ever made it back to her room.

“A missing, overdue person, especially of college age, is not that unusual,” San Luis Obispo County Sheriff Ian Parkinson said. “Oftentimes, they stay overnight or don’t report to their friends what they’re doing, where they’re going.”

California Penal Code 14211(a) says, “All local police and sheriff ’s departments shall accept any report, including any telephonic report, of a missing person, including runaways, without delay, and shall give priority to the handling of these reports over the handling of reports relating to crimes involving property.”

Many have criticized Cal Poly’s early investigations. When UPD first looked into Kristin’s disappearance, they did not ask for help from other local law enforcement agencies. Some community members criticized this decision and claim it could have destroyed chances of finding her body.

“This is a classic example of the system failing

so badly on the campus that all key evidence on the case has been lost,” Sacramento political consultant Terry Black said to the Mustang Daily in 2006. “They always denied that (the system’s failing) because it exposes them legally and it exposes their lack of ability to protect their students.”

Cal Poly responded to these accusations in an email last week, saying, “Since Kristin’s disappearance in 1996, Cal Poly has continued to work closely with local law enforcement officials as they investigate the matter. As the criminal investigation is ongoing, the university cannot comment in further detail.”

In 1998, the Kristin Smart Campus Safety Act was made California law. The act requires public college campuses to create agreements with local law enforcement agencies that “clarify operational responsibilities for investigations of violent

see KRISTIN, pg 3.

Thursday, May 28, 2015 KRISTIN continued from pg 2. crimes.” Stan and Denise Smart lobbied for the legislation in the years after their daughter went missing in an attempt to change the system.

During the early investigations, Kristin’s father all but moved to San Luis Obispo. In an interview with Sacramento’s News 10 television station in 2011, Stan said he made the nearly 250-mile drive to the Central Coast more than 100 times to follow every incoming lead about his daughter’s whereabouts.

“I crawled through so many drainage pipes, over road passes,” he said.

Meanwhile, Denise said she stayed in Stockton by the phone, waiting for her daughter to call.

The only suspect Flores is the last known person to see Kristin. He is the only suspect in the case, but investigators have never had enough evidence to charge him with a crime.

On May 30, five days after Kristin went missing, UPD investigators interviewed Flores, asking him to describe the last time he saw Kristin.

“She walked that way, I walked that way,” Flores told investigators. “That’s the last time I saw her.”

Flores, who had been facing academic challenges, dropped out of Cal Poly shortly after Kristin disappeared.

Flores had a record with law enforcement before the disappearance. In December 1995, SLOPD received a call from a female student at approximately 1 a.m. The student told dispatchers that a drunken Flores had climbed onto her balcony and refused to leave. He left before officers arrived.

Flores has been convicted for driving under the influence four times. March of 1996 marked his first DUI arrest in San Luis Obispo County. He lost his license. He was charged with driving a vehicle while impaired by alcohol or drugs on three subsequent occasions: in 1999, 2000 and 2005.

A black eye During his interview with UPD on May 30, investigators noticed Flores had a black eye. He said he had been elbowed playing basketball.

A friend of Flores told investigators the black eye had been there Sunday, the day before the basketball game. He asked Flores what happened.

“I don’t know how I got the black eye,” the friend said, quoting Flores. “I just woke up with it.”

On June 19, approximately one month later, investigators with the district attorney’s office interviewed Flores again. This time, he admitted he lied about how he got the black eye. He said he actually hit his face on the steering wheel of

NEWS | 3

his truck in the garage, at about 2 a.m. on the morning of Monday, May 27.

“Why 2 in the morning?” investigators asked. “‘I was installing my radio, cause I (was) selling my truck,” he said.

Flores told investigators he hadn’t admitted to hitting his eye on the steering wheel before because it “doesn’t sound like a very likely thing.”

The Smart family’s lawyer, James R. Murphy Jr., said, “(Kristin) was seen at a party. She was with Paul Flores. He had injuries on his body consistent with an altercation. He lied about what occurred.”

Cadaver dogs More than a month after Kristin was last seen, investigators turned to members from the California Rescue Dog Association (CARDA). Four cadaver dogs, trained to search for human remains, arrived on campus on June 29, 1996, according to FBI documents.

Each dog searched Santa Lucia Hall individually. The door to room 128 — the room assigned to Flores — remained open during the search. Each of the dogs alerted to room 128. Furthermore, each dog alerted to the corner of the mattress assigned to Flores. Investigators said the dogs showed no interest in the other mattress or any other parts of the room. Flores earlier told investigators the bed was his.

CARDA dog handler Madela Morris told investigators the human body begins to decompose the moment a person dies, and the cadaver dogs can detect the physiological changes that take place. She said the dogs’ alerts on June 29 indicated a strong possibility that a dead body had been in room 128.

UPD told investigators their records indicated no deaths had ever occurred in that room. The same day the cadaver dogs searched the residence hall, investigators collected the mattress as evidence.

Murphy keeps track of cases involving cadaver dogs, hoping one day to use their findings as evidence against Flores.

“I believe that that testimony, if it were admissible, coupled with the physical injuries to Paul Flores, consistent with a struggle the night before, coupled with the lies that he told law enforcement in an investigation of a disappearance of a young woman, add up to guilt,” Murphy said.

The FBI provided a document to the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff ’s Office in June of 2000, which included some of the details in the case.

In the report, FBI Special Agent John Schafer wrote, “Based on the information in this affidavit, Kristin Smart is deceased and either died in Paul Flores’ dormitory room or was placed there for an unknown period of time ... Paul Flores is responsible for or has direct knowledge of Kristin Smart’s disappearance and/or death.”

DENISE SMART | COURTESY PHOTO

see mustangnews.net for the full multimedia story and the next story in our series about Kristin Smart’s disappearance.

JULIAN DEL GAUDIO | COURTESY PHOTO

Thursday, May 28, 2015

ARTS | 4

Letting go of pettiness and other life lessons from The Merry Hoopsters

JASON HUNG | MUSTANG NE WS THE CIRCLE OF LIFE

| Hula hooping has blown up, and Cal Poly is no exception. Alyssa Wigant (left) and Carter Broad (right) hoop with The Merry Hoopsters on Dexter Lawn every Thursday morning.

Annie Vainshtein @AnnieVain

The coral house perches on a street corner, an oasis amid lifeless infrastructure and college-town-induced exhaustion. The Merry Hoopsters founders’ house emanates circularity, inside and out. Its living room alone contains dozens of hoops, all delicately designed by the members themselves with the help of DIY tape design and YouTube videos. Original, collaborative art covers every inch of white space.

The house’s inhabitants were roommates first — founding the club came second. Ethnic studies junior Zoe Raven, graphic communication junior Amanda Peterson, sociology junior Emily Ardeljan and business administration junior Alexandra Meniktas all met in the residence halls their freshman year.

New to Cal Poly, they spent most of their days in parks outside, recreationally hula hooping and slack lining with friends from their tower.

Sophomore year, they all moved in together off campus.

Hooping is a widespread phenomenon, one that is especially common at music festivals.

Raven had prior experience hooping and taught tricks to her roommates. After a while, the actions paved way for The Merry Hoopsters’ formation.

You’ve likely seen them on Dexter Lawn, head-to-toe in varia-

tions of tie-dye, arms outstretched like how people talk about yoga,” and hoops in hand. Cal Poly’s she said. first hooping club, the Hoopsters For the girls, hooping is intimateknow their practice raises quite a ly gratifying — a natural form of few brows. empowerment. Yet, to their dismay, They each have their own reasons it’s been difficult getting people for why they choose to hoop. to participate.

For Meniktas, it’s an avenue to “People are intimidated by it, creative expression. but you don’t know until you try,” “Everyone has their own flow,” Peterson said. “People throw it she said. “It’s completely different around their waist once and it falls, for each person based on how they and they say something negative, move with the hoop — we like, ‘I suck.’” like to talk about And those senhow our hoop timents are all is like our too familiar to The boyfriend.

Merr y You can Hoopjust go ste rs , dance We like to talk about how b e with our hoop is like our boycause them friend. You can just go at one a n d p oint it’s cute dance with them and it’s t h e y a n d cute and fun. were all fun.”

“Flow” beginners.

ALEXANDRA MENIKTAS isn’t foreign “I mean it — to the rest of the I couldn’t hoop,” household. In fact, the Meniktas said. “In P.E., concept drives and permeates how I would be at three spins and be they live their lives. For The Mer- done. I could not do it. I couldn’t.” ry Hoopsters, flow isn’t something To her surprise and to that of readily defined, and an attempt at many others who begrudgingly atsuch would dilute its meaning. But tempt to hoop, the learning curve is in a certain sense, it means to feel fast. For Meniktas, she only had to in-sync, centered in your move- get two tricks down before feeling comfortable hooping in public. ment and thought.

Raven said hooping has made her And while it may appear the Hoopsters are solely centered in more aware of her body.

“I look at it as more of a practice, their individual “flows,” the club is

driven by collaboration.

“Everyone is totally open to sharing new things,” Meniktas said. “Once you acquire your bag of tricks, you progress quickly because you’re constantly picking up things from other people.”

For Peterson, hooping hasn’t just brought her closer to her roommates — it’s ignited an introspection that grounds her, one that governs her every movement. She reflected on her freshman year and realized there were certain “social scripts” she felt she was following, especially at social events.

Meniktas felt the same way. She remembered defeating thoughts of hers that invaded her sense of self, such as, “Should I turn to the side so I’m more slimming?” or, “I should flirt with him while I hold a beer because that’s cooler than not.”

The fear was overpowering, until she found a new sense of freedom through hooping.

“I realized that whatever it is that you thought you had to do to be noticed, or to be accepted, you don’t have to,” Meniktas said.

For The Merry Hoopsters, the nature of hooping opposes competition, and the act is the farthest thing from a show. But the campus perception seems to indicate otherwise.

“People think you have to be a girl,” Meniktas said. “And that you have to be this person who eats out of jars and is into spirituality and has tapestries all over, and okay

— maybe some of those interests coincide just due to the nature of your personality, but there are plenty of people who are mechanical engineers, or nutrition, etc. It’s completely varied based on interests. It’s just for anyone who likes to self-express and unwind.”

While The Merry Hoopsters understand other students’ distant fascination with the club, they often feel as if their attempts at self-expression are cheapened by Snapchatting spectators. They’re trying to change that.

Last year’s focus was starting the club, but this year has been an active attempt to encourage people to try it out. Just last week, The Merry Hoopsters had a musical event on Dexter with local band The Right Mind. They enjoyed the event but wished more people had the courage to try.

“People always watch us and don’t want to try because they think they won’t be good enough, or it’s something you do to show off, and that there’s no point in doing it because they can’t show off yet,” Raven said.

She iterated that hooping isn’t about how good she is. Rather, whenever she feels her mind taking over, the activity reminds her of the importance of being fully embodied and inhabiting her own space.

And that’s a notion all Merry Hoopsters members live by.

“Hooping allows a new level of having to be aware of your space, inside and outside of the hoop,”

Raven said. “‘Flow’ is synonymous with surrender, and it’s a different state of consciousness, being totally in the moment. Most of the time, we’re so in our minds.”

Overthinking, analyzing, comparing — these faculties are natural in moderation, but too much of them imposes damaging consequences on one’s sense of self, Meniktas said.

“It’s just about being genuine,” she said. “And because I tried hooping and really saw myself progress, I’m more willing to put myself out there and be weird and make mistakes, and look like an idiot, because who cares? If I’m having fun, whatever. I’ve noticed my self-talk is less negative.”

Group members said the idea of living in the moment is less about abandoning plans and structure and more about accepting mistakes and uncertainty.

“For me, it’s about allowing things to unfold and moving with them,” Peterson said. “Recognize that there are things that make you happy and things that bring you down, but not trying to cage or define something to make it permanent.”

The Merry Hoopsters are a rare contradiction: natural-born leaders with no desire for control. Because for them, intangible processes like “flow” are just as real as gathering up the courage to walk across the lawn on a sunny day, pick up a hoop and maybe risk looking silly.

Thursday, May 28, 2015

ARTS | 5

ASI Spring Stampede: Tell the story Mustang News Staff Report @CPMustangArts

Hoodie Allen, Sage the Gemini and The Knocks are headed to campus for the ASI Spring Stampede on Saturday, May 30. Anyone with a PolyCard can purchase a ticket to Cal Poly’s first festival-style concert for $5.

If you plan to attend the show, listen up: Mustang News wants you to help capture the day’s best moments.

When you post on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook about the concert, make sure to hashtag #SpringStampede — your content may show up later on Mustang News.

Let’s get it started now. #SpringStampede.

CREATIVE COMMONS | COURTESY PHOTO #SPRINGSTA MPEDE

| Mustang News is looking for help with telling the ASI Spring Stampede story — add the hashtag to your posts on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook to submit content.

Take it SLO to sing across decades at spring concert Annie Vainshtein @AnnieVain

Cal Poly a cappella group Take It SLO will hold its annual spring concert this Sunday, May 31. The concert will in-

clude two performances in the Davidson Music Center at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m.

Take It SLO will perform a wide variety of new music, according to the group’s president and business administration

sophomore Daniel Catelli.

The concerts’ repertoire will span genres from pop to indie to oldies, and the set list is designed for all ages.

Music will feature nostalgic hits from the Beatles to tunes

NICOLE KIM | COURTESY PHOTO ACA-ROCKIN’ | Take it SLO’s spring show will take place Sunday, May 31 in the Davidson Music Center.

from contemporary artists, such as Beyonce. All of the group’s performance music is arranged by the members themselves.

“I’m most excited for the song called ‘Hollywood’ by RAC I arranged,” Catelli said. “I’ve never arranged before.”

Take it SLO recently released an EP called “SLO Motion,” which is available for purchase on iTunes.

Speaking to the ensemble’s closeness, Catelli said, “We’re not just an a cappella group — we’re a group of friends with a

singing problem.”

The Davidson Music Center is in building 45, room 218. Tickets are $5 for students and $7 for general admission.

More infor mat ion can be found online at Take it SLO’s website.

Thursday, May 28, 2015

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Thursday, May 28, 2015 Publishing since 1916

“You’re not being squinty enough.”

“Yes, you sound stupid buying that $10 acai bowl, unable to pronounce maca and pitaya properly.”

“Wait, is it socially acceptable to order coconut water and then throw it out because it tastes like motor oil?”

This was me having an inner dialogue outside The Neighborhood in San Luis Obispo this past week.

I stepped inside cautiously, attempting not to disrupt the delicate balance between being the “earthy chic” and the “I haven’t washed my hair in three days” look the current customers were maintaining.

I received frequent “What are you doing here?” glances from the people in Birkenstocks behind me.

After mulling over the menu, I decided to order the safest option, an acai bowl with granola, strawberries and bananas.

I ate a doughnut immediately after.

Native to South America, the acai berry made its way to the U.S. and gained immediate stardom. Loaded with antioxidants, they are high in fiber and healthy fats. And they’re the stuff of dreams in terms of the ideal breakfast that solves your sweet tooth craving. But the health benefits of these berries have yet to be proved, so it really could be too good to be true.

When Oprah endorsed the superfruit, everyone seemed to worship it like celebrities practicing Kabbalah. They

were deemed healthy and delicious, an unheard-of combination that had to be capitalized on by basically every smoothie and frozen yogurt shop.

They were popularized in Los Angeles, and of course everyone’s favorite celebrities pioneered the acai trend.

And now they’re all over Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat, igniting the masses with a sudden drive to eat healthily.

Businesses began popping up with the sole purpose of feeding the craze. Soon there was exponential growth of acai, pressed juice and exotic fruit consumption in our popular culture.

It didn’t take long for acai to spread to health-conscious San Luis Obispo, where everyone seems to be lining up for a new hangover cure.

Sociology sophomore Amanda Moore stipulates that part of the appeal in San Luis Obispo is due to our propensity toward fitness.

“San Luis Obispo is so fit, it only makes sense people have started eating them,” she said.

Moore worked at an acai bowl place in her hometown this past summer and feels the benefits of acai are greater than most people know.

“It’s definitely healthy. You get antioxidants and vitamins from them, but I don’t think anyone is necessarily aware of that unless they’ve asked,” she said. “That’s something I’ve noticed, they don’t really advertise what’s in the bowls, which I think they should.”

So maybe people are not fully aware of the benefits they are reaping from eating this soupy substance, or they don’t care as long as it’s been deemed healthy by O Magazine.

I sometimes treat them like a detoxing cure-all. I could be sedentary for a week,

Pop and circumstance and if I ate an acai bowl Sunday morning, I’d be miraculously healthy.

The above anecdote is probably just my warped logic, but I’ve noticed a trend in how a lot of college students eat healthily — they do so sparingly and mostly for show. The drive toward eating healthy is directly correlated with how Instagramable the food is.

You never see anyone eating squash, probably because its aesthetic appeal is nonexistent.

They’re delicious, no doubt about it, but just like sex on TV, the real thing always pales in comparison to the socially saturated version.

Honestly, people, they’re rather mediocre for the steep price and small portions.

Or maybe I just like doughnuts too much to ever change my breakfast habits.

Ultimately, I’ll probably keep paying a ridiculous amount of money for fruits I cannot pronounce, and eat them with a side of fries.

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Thursday, May 28, 2015

SPORTS | 8

Early defensive woes doom Mustangs’ season

IAN BILLINGS | MUSTANG NE WS MEDIOCRITY | The Cal Poly baseball team could not extend its run of postseason appearances. A less-than-stellar nonconference performance was too much to overcome, despite the strong showing in Big West Conference play.

Keenan Donath @CPMustangSports

The Cal Poly baseball team finished its 2015 season with just as many wins as losses. The 27-27 overall record suggests a season of mediocrity, but as is often the case in baseball, a team’s record can paint an incomplete picture of its performance.

Perhaps it was the absence of some of the players who led last year’s team to a first-place finish in the Big West Conference and an NCAA postseason berth.

Currently working their way up the big league ladder, Nick Torres, Chris Hoo, Jimmy Allen, Reed Reilly and Matt Imhof were key in the success of last year’s squad.

Their replacements varied in skill and experience. In an increased role this year, outfielder Zack Zehner helped to fill the void left by Torres, a current San Diego Padres minor leaguer. The senior, who is expected to be drafted fairly high himself, batted .304 in 53 games this

year. His totals for home runs (9), RBI (45) and slugging percentage (.509) led the Mustangs.

With senior outfielder Jordan Ellis putting up improved numbers in 2015, you would expect the Mustangs outfield to be one of the best in the Big West. But Cal Poly struggled to find a consistent performer to fill that third spot and paid the price. Team totals for batting average, hits and RBI all dropped off, despite many of the consistent starters having solid years.

Cal Poly likely boasted the best middle infield combo in the Big West this year. Junior second baseman Mark Mathias, who is primed to be the highest Mustang drafted in this year’s Major League Baseball draft, posted another steady offensive season despite being injured in the beginning of the year. His numbers for batting average (.356) and hits (72) led the team but were understandably a step down from the remarkable numbers he put up last year.

And there is no one smoother at shortstop than Peter Van Gansen. The Big West Defensive Player of the Year set career bests for batting average (.314), hits (69) and home runs (2), in addition to leading the team in defensive assists (154).

The junior should be an intriguing candidate come draft day.

While many of the returning players met expectations for 2015, less-solidified roster spots had a longer adjustment period.

The Mustangs ended up seeing timely production from previous bench players such as sophomore catcher Brett Barbier (34 RBI) and junior outfielder John Schuknecht (6 HR), but it wasn’t enough to cover the losses from last season.

The Cal Poly defense was its downfall early in the year. The bulk of the team’s errors came in the season’s early days. The Mustangs committed three errors per game in four of their first six contests of the season. Catching without Hoo seemed to be a problem, and a Mathias-less

infield was far from ideal.

But as the season progressed the defense started to improve. Barbier settled in as the team’s backstop and a more-than-capable starting nine came to fruition later in the season. An improved defense was the reason the Mustangs were able to rebound from their slow start with a series sweep against Hawaii, a part of their respectable second-half record of 17-10.

Pitching, at times, also proved problematic.

While junior starter Casey Bloomquist was able to put up the type of numbers you would expect from an MLB prospect, posting team bests in wins (8), strikeouts (78) and innings pitched (98), the team struggled to find similar success in games he did not start.

When we talked to head coach Larry Lee in the preseason, he said pitching would be a concern this year. After Bloomquist and senior relievers Taylor Chris and Danny Zandona, the Mustangs were forced

to rely on freshman and sophomore arms. Some fared better than others, with two standouts being freshman starters Kyle Smith and Jarred Zill.

Smith, a southpaw, saw a lot of playing time this year, securing the No. 2 slot in the starting rotation.

He had the second-most starts (13) and secured wins against top-notch teams such as Oregon State and UC Santa Barbara. Meanwhile, the right-handed Zill had an impressive ERA of 3.18 and went 4-1, with most of his action coming in the second half of the season as he slotted into the Sunday starting slot.

Relievers Zandona and Chris, as well as freshman Michael Gomez, were workhorses for the bullpen this year. While their numbers might not show it, the bullpen was able to hold it together in tough situations.

The Mustangs went 26-2 when they had the lead after seven innings.

To be honest, Cal Poly was terrible in the first few weeks of the season.

Sure, Mathias wasn’t able to play fully on both sides of the ball until

the end of March, and Cal Poly did start its season with some tough road matchups, but the Mustangs should have been able to muster more than one win in their first seven games.

And let us remember, Mathias, Zehner and Bloomquist are among the players who are unlikely to — and in Zehner’s case, won’t — return next year, so the lull in performance due to missing stars will be an insufficient excuse next season.

A 14-10 record in Big West play is nothing to scoff at, especially considering where Cal Poly started the year and how repeatedly Lee commented on the poor quality of the team. Was the season a success? Not particularly. But if you had told me the week before conference play began that the Mustangs would finish fourth in the Big West and compete for the top spot in the last few weeks, I might have laughed.

Next up, the MLB draft.