June 7, 2016

DAVIS, Calif. - Six former UC Davis student-athletes plus a beloved administrator will enter the Cal Aggie Athletics Hall of Fame in October, it was announced by interim director of athletics Teresa Gould. The CAAHOF honors outstanding achievements and distinction to Aggie intercollegiate athletics.

Alphabetically, the student-athlete induction class comprises volleyball player Jill Changaris (Muhe), football's Jason Hairston, gymnast Tanya Ho, wrestler Derek Moore, gymnast Jon Trunk and swimmer Scott Weltz. Larry Swanson, who spent more than half of his 36 years on the UC Davis staff as an associate athletics director, will enter the CAAHOF in the Non-Participant category.

Additionally, veteran college and NFL coach Paul Hackett will become the fifth recipient of the Aggie Legacy Award, bestowed upon those with outstanding achievements in an athletics-related field after leaving the university. Jerry Nishimoto will receive the Special Recognition Award for volunteer contributions to the athletics department. Neither the Aggie Legacy or Special Recognition awards constitute entrance into the Hall of Fame; however, they are honored as part of the induction ceremonies.

Jill Changaris twice earned American Volleyball Coaches Association All-Southwest Region during her career as an outside hitter from 1993-96. As a senior, she garnered Northern California Athletic Conference Player of the Year honors and her second all-conference first-team nod. Changaris remains one of only three Aggies to amass more than 1,000 kills and 1,000 digs in a career, ranking fifth and seventh all-time in those respective categories. She is the last UC Davis outside hitter to win All-Region honors, and the last volleyball player to earn conference MVP acclaim.

Jason Hairston earned All-West Region from the collegiate sports information directors plus All-America honors from both C.M. Frank and Don Hansen's Football Gazette as a senior. Remarkably, these accolades â€" including his team-leading 76 tackles â€" came despite a severe back injury sustained during the 1993 NCAA postseason run a year before. Hairston also won all-conference honors as a sophomore and junior, and set school records for season and career tackles. He later signed as a free agent with the San Francisco 49ers and Denver Broncos.

Tanya Ho was one of the first star gymnasts for head coach John Lavallee, winning two Mountain Pacific Sports Federation event championships and claiming a total of 13 all-conference awards in her career from 2007-10. She was the fourth gymnast in school history to break the 39-point barrier in the all-around, and the first to compete at the NCAA West Regional three times. Through 2016, Ho remains the only Lavallee-era gymnast to win the major team awards in all four seasons: Co-Gymnast of the Year in 2007, Outstanding Contribution Awards in 2008 through 2010.

Derek Moore claimed two Pacific-10 Conference titles and won 85 bouts in his career from 2004-07, including 18 by fall. He also set a school Division I-era record with an .809 winning percentage. However, Moore's true claim to fame aired on national television: a 17-2 technical fall upset of Northwestern's No. 1-ranked Ryan Lang in the NCAA 141-pound final. That victory completed the only undefeated season (24-0) in UC Davis history, earned him the NCAA Championships Most Outstanding Wrestler award, and easily landed him the Colby E. "Babe" Slater Award as the school's top male athlete of the year. For his career, Moore is the only Aggie wrestler to qualify to the NCAA postseason in all four years, with that national championship erasing his hard luck in the three previous trips: drawing the defending champion in the first round in 2004 and 2005, then withdrawing due to injury in 2006.

The first All-American in UC Davis men's gymnastics history, Jon Trunk claimed such honors in each of his final three seasons on floor exercise, plus a fourth nod on vault as a junior in 1978. He also remains one of only two gymnasts â€" and the only male â€" to capture the university's W.P. Lindley Award as outstanding scholar-athlete of the year, which he did after that 1978 season. Trunk also won the Far Western Conference vault championship in both 1978 and 1979, helping the Aggies upset Chico State for the team title in his final season.

Before his historic upset of Eric Shanteau at the 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials and his fifth-place finish in the 200-meter breaststroke at the London Olympics, Scott Weltz enjoyed the most decorated of any Aggie swimmer in the Division I era. He earned Big West Conference Male Athlete of the Year twice, following a league Freshman of the Year nod in 2006. He won nine Big West individual event championships in seven different events. Weltz also became the first Div. I-era All-American, advancing to the consolation finals in the 200 individual medley and 200 breaststroke at the 2009 NCAA Championships. Weltz ended his career as co-recipient of the Slater Award in 2010 before beginning his quest to make the London Olympics and U.S. National Team.

While currently well-known as the public address announcer for UC Davis home football and men's basketball games, Larry Swanson contributed to Aggie athletics from behind the scenes for more than two decades. Previously an associate director for the UC Davis Housing office and a general manager for the Chaminade Hotel in Santa Cruz, Swanson returned to the campus as the ICA business manager, which later became associate athletics director. Under his watch came the launch of TeamAggie fundraising campaign, which arose from the former Cal Aggie Booster Club; the expansion of an athletics marketing and promotions arm, and the formation of the Aggie Pack student spirit organization.

Swanson's efforts in mobilizing the students via the Aggie Pack also helped with the passage with three critical ASUCD measures: the Student Activities & Services Initiative, the Facilities And Campus Enhancement Initiative, and the Campus Enhancement Initiative. Respectively, the SASI, FACE and CEI provided critical operating budget to the university, funded new capital projects such as Aggie Stadium and Schaal Aquatics Center, and enabled the university's reclassification to NCAA Division I. According to Bob Franks, retired former associate vice chancellor, the three initiatives "have massively re-shaped intercollegiate athletics at UC Davis."

Paul Hackett became the first branch on the Jim Sochor's impressive "coaching tree" in a career that began soon after his final game as an Aggie quarterback in 1968 and continued through his retirement from the Oakland Raiders in 2010. During that span, Hackett served as an assistant on the collegiate staffs of California, USC and Pittsburgh; and at the professional level for the Cleveland Browns, San Francisco 49ers, Dallas Cowboys, Kansas City Chiefs, New York Jets, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Oakland Raiders.

Hackett took over as head coach at Pitt in 1989, guiding the Panthers to a John Hancock Bowl victory over Texas A&M in his first game, then serving three more season. He later manned the helm at USC from 1998 to 2000. Hackett also owns the distinction of having an NCAA championship ring, earned as an assistant at USC in 1978; and a Super Bowl ring, won as part of the 49ers staff in 1984.

During and since his career as a computer facility manager in the UC Davis Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Jerry Nishimoto has volunteer countless hours both on the Aggie football "chain gang" and on the game staff at men's and women's basketball games. Despite being a longtime fan and a UC Davis alum himself, Nishimoto approaches his duties on both crews with the utmost integrity and reliability.

The CAAHOF inductions will take place during a brunch luncheon on Sunday, October 16 at the Conference Center Ballroom, as part of the campus's overall Homecoming festivities. More details will follow at www.ucdavisaggies.com.