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Following a historic run to a fourth consecutive conference championship, Long Beach State dominated the 2025-26 All-Big West Men’s Golf awards with the Golfer and Coach of the Year and five first-team selections. This marks yet another known first in league history, with the entirety of the Beach lineup landing on the first team as lineup is ranked one through five in the Clippd rankings heading into the national postseason.
Senior Alejandro de Castro Piera earned Big West Golfer of the Year recognition after putting together one of the top seasons in the country. Ranked No. 31 nationally and first in The Big West, de Castro Piera leads the Big West with a 69.2 scoring average and has posted nine top 10s and five top-3 finishes in 11 tournaments, including medalist honors at the Arizona Thunderbirds Intercollegiate. He also finished runner-up at The Thunderbird Collegiate and placed third at the Mark Simpson Colorado Invitational and Ram Masters Invitational in fall competition. This marks a second straight first-team nod for the native of Sant Esteve Sesrovires, Spain.
Joining de Castro Piera on the All-Big West First Team are teammates Jaden Huggins, Steen Zeman, Jack Cantlay and Krishnav Nikhil Chopraa. Huggins, the league’s second-ranked golfer, holds a 70.4 scoring average with four top 5 finishes, including a runner-up showing alongside teammate Jack Cantlay at The Big West Championship. Zeman, Big West individual medalist, heads into regional action with back-to-back individual top 10s as does 2025 Big West individual medalist Chopraa. Chopraa is making a second appearance on the first team, also earning distinction after last season’s Championship victory. All five golfers average under-par scoring on the season.
All told, the Long Beach State fivesome finished atop the leaderboard twice, with nine top 3 finishes, 16 top 5 placements and 23 top 10 individual performances. As a team, the Beach took home three titles while landing in the top 3 on eight occasions in the 2025-26 season.
LBSU head coach Rob Murray was voted Big West Coach of the Year for the fourth straight season after guiding the Beach to another league title. LBSU shattered The Big West scoring record by 26 strokes and became the first program in Big West history — dating back to 1970 — to sweep places 1 through 5 on the All-Tournament Team.
UC San Diego senior Davis McDowell earned first-team honors after ranking sixth in the conference and posting two tournament victories during the season. McDowell captured medalist honors at both The Watney and Ram Masters Invitational while adding a fifth-place result at the Gene Miranda Falcon Invitational. McDowell finished the year with a 71.1 scoring average in a return to the course after missing the majority of the 2024-25 season with injury. This marks the San Rafael, Calif., native’s second first-team honor (2022-23).
Senior teammate Nathan Tseng garnered second-team recognition after averaging 72.2 strokes per round with one victory at the Pearl at Kalauao Invitational. This is Tseng’s second-straight appearance on the All-Big West second team. Both McDowell and Tseng picked up Big West Golfer of the Month honors in the fall after their tournament titles.
Cal Poly first-year player Rafael Bobo-Lloret was named Big West Freshman of the Year after emerging as one of the league’s top newcomers. Ranked 10th in the conference, Bobo-Lloret won the Bill Cullum Invitational. The native of Marseille, France, finished the season with a 72.5 scoring average across 33 rounds, capped by a 10th place finish in The Big West Championship.
Sophomore Nolan Kuszyk joined Bobo-Lloret on the second team after posting a 72.5 scoring average and compiling a trio of top-10 efforts during the season for The Big West Championship runners-up. Kuszyk is earning consecutive All-Big West second team disctinctions.
UC Irvine senior Rei Harashima secured second-team honors for a third straight season after recording a pair of top 10s after a fifth-place showing at the UC San Diego Invitational and a seventh-place finish at the Big West Championship while averaging 72.6 strokes per round.
Rounding out the second team is UC Davis sophomore Lequan Wang. The product of San Mateo, Calif., closed the year with a 72.3 scoring average with top 5s at the Bridgestone Collegiate Invitational, El Macero Classic and Marquette Intercollegiate for the Aggies.
UC Davis teammates Curtis Da Silva and Ryan Firpo were placed on the honorable mention listings alongside Dylan Ma of UC Santa Barbara, Cal State Fullerton’s Will Tanaka and Dane Watanabe of Hawai’i to complete awardees.
The Big West 2025-26 All-Conference Team
Golfer of the Year: Alejandro de Castro Piera, Long Beach State
Freshman of the Year: Rafael Bobo-Lloret, Cal Poly
Coach of the Year: Rob Murray, Long Beach State
All-Big West First Team
Student-Athlete
Year
Institution
Hometown
Jack Cantlay
Sr.
Long Beach State
Los Alamitos, Calif.
Krishnav Nikhil Chopraa
Jr.
Long Beach State
New Delhi, India
Alejandro de Castro Piera
Sr.
Long Beach State
Sant Esteve Sesrovires, Spain
Jaden Huggins
Sr.
Long Beach State
Murrieta, Calif.
Davis McDowell
Sr.
UC San Diego
San Rafael, Calif.
Steen Zeman
Gr.
Long Beach State
Oxnard, Calif.
All-Big West Second Team
Student-Athlete
Year
Institution
Hometown
Rafael Bobo-Lloret
Fr.
Cal Poly
Marseille, France
Rei Harashima
Sr.
UC Irvine
Chula Vista, Calif.
Nolan Kuszyk
So.
Cal Poly
La Cañada Flintridge, Calif.
Nathan Tseng
Sr.
UC San Diego
Fullerton, Calif.
Lequan Wang
So.
UC Davis
San Mateo, Calif.
Honorable Mention:
Curtis Da SIlva (UC Davis); Ryan Firpo (UC Davis); Dylan Ma (UC Santa Barbara); Will Tanaka (Cal State Fullerton); Dane Watanabe (Hawai’i)