By Ron Smith
April 17, 2025
 
(SANTA BARBARA, Calif.) On Tuesday evening, April 15, in a banquet at the Hilton Santa Barbara Beachfront Resort, Westmont Athletics honored 14 student-athletes as recipients of the Golden Eagle Award. The event, which has been held annually since 1995, recognizes one student-athlete from each team that has excelled as both a student and as an athlete while also providing leadership within their respective team.
 
This year's recipients are:
 

Sport	Honoree	Year	Major
Baseball	Zach Yates	Senior	Engineering
Men's Basketball	Jarrett Bryant	Junior	Economics and Business
Women's Basketball	Isabella Pearson	Senior	Economics and Business
Men's Cross Country	Jesse Nieman	Senior	Chemistry, Spanish
Women's Cross Country	Abigail Hundley	Senior	History
Women's Golf	Noelle Thompson	Sophomore	Economics and Business
Men's Soccer	Brady Highfill	Senior	Kinesiology
Women's Soccer	Katie DeMillo	Senior	Communication Studies
Women's Swimming	Olivia Garrison	Senior	Religious Studies
Men's Tennis	Owen Vander Ark	Senior	Economics and Business
Women's Tennis	Arianne Verthan	Senior	Biology, Economics and Business
Men's Track & Field	Andres Leon	Senior	Economics and Business
Women's Track & Field	Jaiden Rodrigues	Senior	Communication Studies
Women's Volleyball	Alexis Dennick	Junior	Kinesiology

During their acceptance speeches, recipients spoke of their experiences as Westmont student-athletes, the challenges they faced, the support they received from coaches and teammates and the ways in which their lives where shaped by their Westmont experience.
 
Honored at the event were Pete and Gerd Jordano who sponsored the event for the first 30 years.
 
A link to a video of the ceremony is available at the Golden Eagles Awards webpage,