College Notebook: Barden signs four-year deal with N.Y. Giants

Former Cal Poly All-American was drafted in the third round

By Tribune staff report

Comments (0) |

E-Mail

Text Size:

tool goes here

Ramses Barden had already reported. Now he’s ready to start clocking in.

Barden, a third-round NFL Draft pick of the New York Giants, signed a four-year contract with his new team Wednesday.

The former Cal Poly wide receiver had already gone through organized team activities and mini-camp with the Giants, who took him with the 85th overall choice in the draft and made him the highest Mustangs offensive player ever taken.

Chris Gocong, a starting outside linebacker for the Philadelphia Eagles, was the only former Cal Poly player taken higher when the Eagles selected him 71st overall in 2006.

The terms of Barden’s contract were not available. The team also signed fifth-round pick Rhett Bomar, a former Oklahoma quarterback who finished his career at San Houston State.

The Giants also released veteran tight end George Wrightster and first-year offensive lineman Mike Fladell. ———— Jensen on another postseason team

Cal Poly freshman second baseman Matt Jensen was named to the American Baseball Coaches Association All-West Region first team.

This comes after Jensen was picked for the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper Louisville Slugger Freshman All-American Team and Pro-Line Athletic/National College Baseball Writers Association Division I Freshman All-American first team earlier this month.

Jensen was batting .375 and leading the team in doubles (15), home runs (9) and RBI (53) before having his season ended prematurely by a broken collarbone.

Jensen collided with a baserunner from San Francisco and fractured his clavicle in a game May 2.

“This is another great accomplishment for Matt,” seventh-year Mustangs head coach Larry Lee said in a news release. “I would have liked to have seen what he would have accomplished in a full season.”

Jensen had a 23-game hitting streak — the third longest in Cal Poly’s Division I program history — and went 35 for 89 with 24 RBI during the streak.

He is Cal Poly’s first freshman All-American since Wes Dorrell in 2007.

Jensen was also invited to the USA Baseball Team Trials, currently being held in Cary, N.C., but is still recovering from injury.

Poly’s Gonzalez ties for top spot

Cal Poly golfer Geoff Gonzalez tied for medalist honors at the California State Amateur Championship stroke-play qualifying at Lake Merced Golf Course in Daly City on Tuesday.

Gonzalez also won his opening round in the match-play portion of the tournament Wednesday.

Gonzalez shot an 8-under 64 in Tuesday’s morning round after carding a 71 in Monday’s opening round. The 64 was one shot off the course record shot by Nationwide Tour player Roger Tambellini.

In his first appearance in the State Amateur, Gonzalez had three birdies and three eagles in his near-record round to share the title with defending champion Nick Delio, a junior at Cal State Northridge.

In match play, Gonzalez topped Fresno’s Logan Goettsch 2 and 1.

Gonzalez gained entry to the 32-player field by winning a qualifier at Cypress Ridge. The round of 16 is scheduled for today with the quarterfinals and semifinals set for Friday.

Poly women’s basketball fills vacancy

The Cal Poly women’s basketball team announced the hiring of assistant coach Kristin Iwanaga, a former Cal point guard who holds the Pac-10 and Golden Bears record for career free-throw percentage (.890).

Since graduating in 2005, Iwanaga has coached as an assistant at her former high school, Archbishop Mitty, and spent the past two seasons as the varsity girls basketball coach at St. Francis High in Watsonville.

“We’re excited to have Kristin join our staff,” Mustangs coach Faith Mimnaugh said in a news release. “I remember Kristin working her magic against Cal Poly when she played at California, and it will be great to have her share her knowledge of the point guard position with the Mustang program.”

Iwanaga replaces Shandrika Lee-Gerch, who left Cal Poly after four seasons to coach at Army. Henson leaves Cal Poly for Oklahoma

Cal Poly assistant wrestling coach Sammie Henson was hired to be the new assistant coach at Oklahoma.

Henson was the assistant head coach for the Mustangs the past two seasons and served as the organizer of the Central Coast Duals, a high-powered meet held at the Madonna Inn Convention Center this past season.

Prior to coming to Cal Poly, Henson was a world champion wrestler in 1998. He won a silver medal in the Olympic Games in Sydney in 2000 and took bronze at the world meet in 2006.

Henson returns to the Oklahoma program after serving as a club coach for the Sooners from 1997-2000. Henson’s résumé also includes coaching stints as an assistant at Penn State, Army and Nebraska.

About comments

Reader comments on SanLuisObispo.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Tribune. If you see an objectionable comment, click the "report abuse" button below it. We will delete comments containing inappropriate links, obscenities, hate speech, and personal attacks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. See more about comments here.

What you should know about comments on SanLuisObispo.com

SanLuisObispo.com is happy to provide a forum for reader interaction, discussion, feedback and reaction to our stories. However, we reserve the right to delete inappropriate comments or ban users who can't play nice. See our full terms of service here.

Here are some rules of the road:

Keep your comments civil. Don't insult one another or the subjects of our articles. If you think a comment violates our guidelines click the "report abuse" button. Responding to the comment will only encourage bad behavior.
Don't use profanities, vulgarities or hate speech. This is a general interest news site. Sometimes, there are children present. Don't say anything in a way you wouldn't want your own child to hear.
Do not attack other users; focus your comments on issues, not individuals.
Stay on topic. Only post comments relevant to the article at hand. If you want to discuss an issue with a specific user, click on his profile name and leave him a public message.
Do not copy and paste outside material into the comment box.
Don't repeat the same comment over and over. We heard you the first time.
Do not use the commenting system for advertising. That's spam and it isn't allowed.
Don't use all capital letters. That's akin to yelling and not appreciated by the audience.

You should also know that The Tribune does not screen comments before they are posted. You are more likely to see inappropriate comments before our staff does, so we ask that you click the "report abuse" button to submit those comments for moderator review. You also may notify us via email at webmaster@sanluisobispo.com. Note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us the profile name of the user who made the comment. Remember, comment moderation is subjective. You may find some material objectionable that we won't and vice versa.

If you submit a comment, the username of your account will appear along with it. Users cannot remove their own comments once they have submitted them, but you may ask our staff to retract one of your comments by sending an email to webmaster@sanluisobispo.com. Again, make sure you note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us your profile name.