O'Neal and Nady Lead Off for Top Male Athletes

Editor's Note: The following are, in order, the Daily Cal sports staff's picks for the best of the rest of Cal's male athletes.

2. Deltha O'Neal (football): The senior cornerback rewrote the record-books and did his best to rewrite Cal's lackluster season. O'Neal set a Cal record for interceptions in a season (9) and broke the NCAA single-season mark for interception returns for touchdowns (4). He was also a terror on special teams, averaging 29.2 yards per kickoff return and 10.2 yards per punt return. Perhaps O'Neal's most memorable game was against Stanford, in which he returned a punt and a kickoff for touchdowns before the Cardinal started kicking away from him.

O'Neal collected honors with the same profusion that he piled up numbers. He received the Mosi Tatupu Award for the top special teams player in the country and the Pop Warner Award for the best senior player on the West Coast. O'Neal also named the Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Year and was a consensus All-American. Just last month, the Denver Broncos rewarded O'Neal's efforts by making him the 15th selection in the NFL Draft.

3. Xavier Nady (baseball): The junior slugger lived up to expectations this year as one of the top prospects in the Major League Draft. More importantly, Nady has been the Cal baseball team's most imposing hitter.

The third baseman followed up his monster 1999 season by leading the ballclub in batting average (.335), runs scored (48), home runs (18) and RBIs (55). Besides his consistency and power production at the plate, Nady has proven himself Mr. Reliable by starting all of the Bears' 50 games this season.

Nady has also put his name atop the charts by setting three career records at Cal. He collected 56 home runs in his college career to surpass Troy Penix' record of 50, racked up a whopping 192 RBIs to replace Lance Blankenship's record of 189, and is the leader in total bases with 479.

4. Michael Ashe (gymnastics): The freshman led the Cal gymnastics team to a No. 5 finish at the NCAA Championships by destroying his competition in three events. The team finished 22-5.

Ashe was the Bears' most consistent performer. Cal looked to him to lead the team in most meets, and Ashe responded by scoring above a 9.9 on multiple occasions.

After failing to win a championship at the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation meet due to illness, the freshman went to NCAAs with something to prove. Ashe finished with a third in the pommel horse and took home the championship in the high bar.

5. John Taylor (rugby): The senior was the captain of Cal's national championship rugby team this season. In his four seasons at Cal, Taylor collected four national titles as the Bears' flanker.

Taylor was named the Most Valuable Player of the national tournament, scoring a try in each of the Bears' victories. But Taylor's most important duty on the team was as the team's captain.

6. Sean Lampley (basketball): The junior power forward was the only experienced starter on a freshman-laden team, and he carried the Bears to the second round of the National Invitation Tournament. Lampley led the team with 16.6 points and 7.4 rebounds per game on the season, and was second in assists with 3.2 per contest.

Lampley accomplished all of this despite playing out of position - at 6-foot-7, he doesn't have prototypical power-forward size - and facing double and sometimes triple-teams. Conference coaches recognized his effort by selecting him to the All-Pac-10 team.

7. Bolota Asmerom (cross country/track): This junior two-sport athlete has been a terror on the running scene. Asmerom led Cal in every race he competed in during the cross-country season and set several course records. His first-place finishes at the Fresno, Aggie, and Long Beach Invitationals were only precursors to his 10th-place finish in the NCAA Regionals. Asmerom qualified for the NCAA Championship Meet for the first time in his career and placed 103rd.

During this spring's track and field season, Asmerom was Cal's No. 1 runner in the 5000, and often raced against members of the U.S. National team. He crushed the school record at the Mt. San Antonio College Relays in April, bringing it down to 13 minutes, 32.48 seconds. The time qualified him for an automatic berth in June's NCAA Championship meet.

8. Doug Brooks (soccer): As goalie, the New Jersey native was the last line of defense on the seventh-best defensive team in the nation. His record-breaking goals-against average of 0.60 was the best in Bears history, passing Todd Harmon's 1986 mark of 0.73.

After being named MVP of the Old Dominion Stihl Soccer Classic in September, Brooks was named the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Player of the Week. The senior pitched a shutout in three of the four games on the way to the tournament title.

Brooks finished off a very handy 1999 campaign by finishing second among Cal's all-time shutout leaders with 24.5 blankings.

9. Bart Kizierowski (swimming): One of Cal's team captains this season, the senior is widely recognized as one of the top sprint freestylers in the world.

Last year's NCAA champion in the 100-yard freestyle, Kizierowski came to the Cal program in 1997 after competing for his native Poland at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta.

Ably handling all challengers this season, Kizierowski consistently emerged victorious in the sprint freestyle events and also contributed to the team by swimming middle-distance freestyle and backstroke events.

At the Pac-10 Championships, he was a member of the national record-setting 400 freestyle relay and also captured the title in both the 50 and 100 freestyle.

Kizierowski returns to the international scene this September for his second Olympic appearance in Sydney.

10. Han Lee (golf): In his senior year, Lee not only led the Cal golf team on the course, but off it as well. He had the lowest stroke average on the team and was co-captain along with Robert Hamilton.

After winning the Canadian Amateur last summer, Lee started his final season at Cal with a win at the Pacific Invitational, where he shot 3-under par.

Last week, Lee won the U.S. Intercollegiate at Stanford Golf Course, leading the Cal to its first tournament victory of the year. Next week Lee and the Bears will compete in the NCAA Western Regionals and attempt to advance to the national tournament for the third year in a row. The All-Pac-10 second-teamer will turn professional after playing in the major national amateur tournaments this summer.

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