Brown Trafton (IME 2004) selected for Cal Poly Hall of Fame

Stephanie Brown Trafton has hurled her way into the Cal Poly Athletic Hall of Fame. The 2004 Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering grad who became the first Olympic gold medalist in Cal Poly history when she won the women's discus at the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing, was named to the Hall of Fame in October.

It was the latest in a long list of honors for Brown Trafton, a three-time state discus champion at Arroyo Grande High School who also played basketball at Cal Poly before an injury ended her hoops career. She received the 2008 Jesse Owens Award as female track and field athlete of the year in the United States after winning the Olympic title with a mark of 212 feet, 5 inches.

At Cal Poly, Brown Trafton set and still holds school records of 57-0 in the shot put and 189-7 in the discus. She was a seven-time Big West champion - four in the shot put and three in the discus - and three times earned NCAA All-America honors in outdoor track and field, placing seventh in the shot put in 2001, fourth in the discus in 2002 and fourth in the shot put in 2003. She was named Cal Poly's Female Athlete of the Year in 2003.

Brown Trafton, currently the director of operations for the Sacramento State track and field teams, also competed in the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, placing 11th in the first of two groups in the prelims and 22nd overall with a mark of 192-1.

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