CARSON – The 2020 Fall Semester will certainly go down in the Cal State Dominguez Hills Athletics department's history books as one of the best. Not from a competition standpoint, but in the classroom.
 
Knowing that they were going into the semester continuing with the virtual learning environment due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, 153 Cal State Dominguez Hills student-athletes excelled in this unique challenge this past fall to make up the Cardinal & Honor Academic Honors lists, shattering all records in previous terms.
 
For the second consecutive semester, Toros Athletics saw a record 13 student-athletes earn a perfect 4.0 grade-point average, a whopping 90 student-athletes received Gold honors for owning a GPA between 3.5-4.0, and the Cardinal honors, which is for student-athletes who received a 3.0-3.49 GPA, saw a new record set with 63 recipients.
 
Earning perfect grades for the fall semester were baseball's Vince Temesevary; women's basketball's Auren Isaacson; cheer's Stephanie Hulme; dance's Kalani Livingston; men's soccer's Spencer Myers and Sean Williamson; women's soccer's Kekoa Nelson; softball's Kaylee Hull; track & field's Kryshiana Pharr and Marina Zeferino; and volleyball's Brit Chan, Jordan Ramirez and Gabby Silva.
 
Based on the total number of student-athletes on each team's roster in the fall, 10 programs saw more than half of their squad earn a spot on the Cardinal & Gold lists. Men's soccer had the highest percentage within the athletic department at 78 percent, followed by volleyball at 74 percent, cheer at 72 percent and men's golf at 70 percent.
 
The baseball team had the most student-athletes make either list with 25, followed by softball with 21. Women's soccer had the most student-athletes to make Gold standards with 14, including Nelson. Baseball and volleyball were not the far behind with 13 and 12, respectively.
 
After having to transition from the longtime traditional in-classroom experience to everything done digital and online midway through the 2020 Spring Semester due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Toros student-athletes and their fellow students within the California State University system entered the fall knowing that the virtual learning environment will continue when then-CSU Chancellor Timothy P. White made the announcement over the summer.
 
The Cardinal & Gold Honor Roll was established in the middle of the 2017 spring semester in part by a very generous contribution made by Dr. Roderick and Katherine Hay. Dr. Rod Hay has served CSUDH from 1996-2018, beginning as Assistant Professor of Geography in the Department of Earth Sciences and Geography. He served as Associate Professor and chaired the department from 1999-2002, and again in 2004. Dr. Hay served briefly as the Interim Special Assistant to the President/Chief of Staff and the Center for Urban Environmental Research (CUER) Director, serving the latter role since 2005. After serving as the Associate Dean for seven years, Dr. Hay was named Dean for the College of Natural and Behavioral Sciences in 2013 until his retirement in 2018.