RIVERSIDE – A single-year record seven Lancers will be inducted into the California Baptist University Athletics Hall of Fame this week during Homecoming Weekend.
Both CBU softball and women's basketball will have multiple honorees this year, with softball's Ashley Boyd and Emma Holden and women's basketball's Kamille Diaz and Cassidy Mihalko being part of this historic class. Baseball's Brian Sharp, men's basketball's Michael Smith and wrestling's Jacob Waste complete the septet.
Those seven bring CBU's Hall of Fame to a total of 88 legendary Lancers. They will be honored during the CBU men's basketball's game versus The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley on Saturday, Feb. 12 at 7 p.m. BOYD (2009-10) AND HOLDEN (2009-12)
Boyd and Holden were key figures to CBU softball's run of dominance at the plate and in the circle, respectively. They were also teammates, with Boyd spending the 2009-10 seasons in Riverside while Holden was on the roster from 2009-12.
The Lancers went 240-20, won two national championships (2012 NCCAA and 2009 NAIA) and four conference titles with three 60-plus win seasons from 2009-12. From 2009-10, the team went 125-9 and also placed third in the NAIA in 2010.
Emma Holden
Holden is one of the great arms in a Lancer program that's had no shortage of dominant pitchers. She was named a Pitcher of the Year five times, with three-straight at the conference level from 2010-12 and two in a row on a national level (2011 NAIA, 2012 NCCAA). She also made three All-American teams, four all-conference teams and was also a four-time scholar athlete. Ashley Boyd
She ranks first in CBU history with a .141 batting average and 1,009 strikeouts (10.98 per seven innings). She also ranks second with 98 wins, 103 starts, 643.1 innings pitched and 66 complete games. Her 1.12 earned-run average ranks third, along with 130 appearances and 34 shutouts.
Holden also still holds the Lancers' single-season records for strikeouts (351), strikeouts per seven innings (11.82), hits allowed per seven innings (2.31), while her 35 wins and 0.59 ERA rank second and third.
While Holden held opposing offenses in check, Boyd spearheaded CBU's offenses in the 2009-10 seasons. She made NAIA All-American and All-GSAC Teams both years and was the 2010 Conference Player of the Year and 2009 NAIA National Championship MVP when softball won its first-ever national title.
The shortstop is one of – if not the best hitter in CBU history. She's the team's career leader with a .448 batting average, .848 slugging and .516 on-base percentages. She also ranks second with 37 home runs, fifth in stolen base percentage (85.7), sixth in runs (156), eighth in total bases (341) and 10th in doubles (42).
She still holds CBU's single-season records for hits (100), total bases (178), runs scored (82) and walks (37) and ranks second in batting average (.467), slugging percentage (.867), on-base percentage (.524), doubles (22) and home runs (21).
MIHALKO AND DIAZ (2014-17)
Mihalko and Diaz helped put CBU women's basketball on the map, as they lead the Lancers to the best four-year run in program history and rewrote the program record books in the process.
Cassidy Mihalko and Kamille Diaz
California Baptist amassed a 109-25 record with Mihalko and Diaz on the roster from 2014-17. In the process, the Lancers advanced to the NCAA Division II Tournament semifinals twice, including the 2015 championship game, won two West Region crowns (2015, 2017) and three PacWest titles, with two regular-season trophies (2016-17) and the 2017 tournament crown.
Mihalko reaped four All-American, two All-West Region First Team and three All-PacWest and West Region All-Tournament awards in her career. In her senior season, she earned First Team All-American distinction from the Women's Basketball Coaches Association and Conference Commissioner's Association and was named the PacWest Player of the Year, Female Athlete of the Year and Female Scholar Athlete of the Year.
Her 2,231 career points and 16.9 points-per-game average rank second and fourth in CBU history. She also boasts the highest career three-point percentage (.415), third best free throw percentage (.816) and fourth most rebounds (789) for the Lancers. She set a single-season record with 734 points in 2016-17 with her 19.9 average ranking fifth.
Diaz was a two-time All-West Region First Teamer, made two All-West Regional Teams and was named the West Region Tournament MVP in 2016-17. She was also voted to three All-PacWest Teams and was the conference's Freshman of the Year in 2014 and 2017 PacWest Tournament MVP.
She ranks fourth in program history with 1,926 points and ninth with 16.9 points per game. She's the career leader in three pointers (398) and ranks second in assists (688), while her 5.13 assists per game rank fourth.
SHARP (2009-11)Brian Sharp
Sharp helped guide CBU baseball to back-to-back Golden State Athletic Conference championships in 2010-11 and was twice named the GSAC Player of the Year as a result. He was also named an NAIA All-American Second Teamer and was taken by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 24th round of the Major League Baseball Draft in 2011.
To this day, Sharp is the Lancers' career leader with 89 stolen bases and ranks second with 165 runs scored. He's the only Lancer to steal more than 30 bases in a season and has done so twice.
The shortstop also ranks 10th in program history with 45 doubles and in the top-15 with 208 hits, 327 total bases, a .354 batting average, 134 runs batted in, 67 walks and 588 at-bats.
Sharp put together one of the best offensive seasons in team history in 2010, with 35 stolen bases (first), 68 runs (third), 60 RBI (10th), 138 total bases and a .488 on-base percentage (eighth). Those stats still all rank top-10 in CBU single-season history.
SMITH (2013-2017)
Smith graduated as one of the most decorated student-athletes to come through the Lancer program. During his four-year career, the Lancers advanced to the NCAA Division II playoffs in all four years and finished with an impressive 104-23 overall record.
Michael Smith
In his senior season, he averaged 24.9 points per game (third-best national average) and finished his career as the all-time leading scorer at CBU and in the PacWest with 2,031 career points.
Smith was a two-time PacWest Player of the Year, DII West Region Player of the Year, a top-10 finalist for the Bevo Francis Award, six-time All-American honoree, and PacWest Tournament MVP. He was also named the "Area College Men's Player of the Year" by the Press-Enterprise after his senior season.
He is mentioned 46 times in the CBU record books and holds multiple top marks in the program. He is currently playing professional basketball in Mexico.
WASTE (2015-17)
Waste is CBU wrestling's career leader with an 88.6 winning percentage (78-10), while his 78 wins are tied for fourth all-time, despite just a three-year career in a Lancer singlet.
Jacob Waste
The Minnesota native not only qualified for the NCAA Division II Championships as a Super Region IV champion all three years but achieved All-American status with top-five finishes each season. He also won two Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference titles.
Waste's final season ended with him winning the D-II 197-pound championship and RMAC Wrestler of the Year award in 2017. He also led the Lancers to top-30 finishes in D-II in his three seasons, including a third and sixth-place finishes in 2017 and 2016, respectively. CBU also won a Super Region IV title in 2017 and the 2016 RMAC crown as a team.
