Bears Begin Competition At NCAA West Regionals

The California track & field team’s 26 qualifiers will throw down against hundreds of the best athletes in the nation this week, each ready to put their best effort forward at the NCAA West Regionals in College Station, Texas, to earn a coveted spot at next month’s NCAA Outdoor Championships. The four-day meet at Texas A&M’s E.B. Cushing Stadium runs Wednesday-Saturday, with each day’s evening events streamed on ESPN+. Live results will be available at Flash Results.
 
Track athletes will need to advance past two rounds (first rounds and quarterfinals) to book their spots at Oregon’s Hayward Field, where the NCAA Championships will be contested. Field athletes have just one round (a semifinal) to pass. Only 12 individuals per event will move on to Eugene.
 
The men’s events are scheduled for Wednesday and Friday while the women will compete on Thursday and Saturday.
 
Eighteen of the Golden Bears’ entries have posted at least one outdoor program top-10 mark this season, which includes a world record from discus thrower Mykolas Alekna. He, along with fellow discus thrower and Olympian Caisa-Marie Lindfors, will look to qualify for their third NCAA Championships (Alekna – 2022-23; Lindfors – 2021, 23).
 
Hammer thrower Giavonna Meeks and pole vaulter Tyler Burns each competed at this year’s NCAA Indoor Championships, with Meeks finishing fourth in the weight throw and Burns 12th in the indoor pole vault. Distance runner Garrett MacQuiddy and hammer thrower Audrey Jacobs both reached the NCAA Outdoor Championships in 2023, with Jacobs earning Second-Team All-American status.
 
Trevor Rogers (long jump) and Valentina Savva (hammer) are Cal’s only two freshmen set to compete this week, following silver-medal performances at the ACC Outdoor Championships earlier this month. Savva is just one of three first-years appearing in the women’s hammer throw and the only one listed in the final flight.
 
NCAA WEST REGIONALS SCHEDULE (All Times PT)
 
Wednesday, May 28
8 a.m. – Men’s Hammer Semifinal (Jared Freeman – Flight 3)
2:30 p.m. – Men’s Long Jump Semifinal (Jason Plumb – Flight 3; Trevor Rogers – Flight 3)
3:30 p.m. – Men’s Pole Vault Semifinal (Tyler Burns – Flight 2; Parker Terrill – Flight 2; Will Siemens – Flight 2)
4 p.m. – Men’s Shot Put Semifinal (Nick Godbehere – Flight 1)
4 p.m. – Men’s 110m Hurdles First Round (Donovan Bradley – Heat 5)
4:30 p.m. – Men’s 1500m First Round (Garrett MacQuiddy – Heat 4)
5:25 p.m. – Men’s 400m First Round (Johnny Goode – Heat 3)
 
Thursday, May 29
8 a.m. – Women’s Hammer Semifinal (Amanda Spear – Flight 2; Adrianna Coleman – Flight 3; Audrey Jacobs – Flight 3; Giavonna Meeks – Flight 4; Valentina Savva – Flight 4)
2:30 p.m. – Women’s Long Jump Semifinal (Asjah Atkinson – Flight 1)
3:30 p.m. – Women’s Pole Vault Semifinal (Ali Sahaida – Flight 2)
4 p.m. – Women’s Shot Put Semifinal (Lucija Leko – Flight 3)
4 p.m. – Women’s 100m Hurdles First Round (Saqqara Ruffin – Heat 2; Asjah Atkinson – Heat 4; Mari Testa – Heat 4)
5:50 p.m. – Women’s 800m First Round (Jayden Hill – Heat 2)
 
Friday, May 30
11 a.m. – Men’s Discus Semifinal (Mykolas Alekna – Flight 4; Jared Freeman – Flight 4)
12:30 p.m. – Men’s Triple Jump Semifinal (Jeremiah Bolaños – Flight 1)
3:15 p.m. – Men’s 1500m Quarterfinal (if qualified – Garrett MacQuiddy)
4:15 p.m. – Men’s 110m Hurdles Quarterfinal (if qualified – Donovan Bradley)
4:50 p.m. – Men’s 400m Quarterfinal (if qualified – Johnny Goode)
 
Saturday, May 31
11 a.m. – Women’s Discus Semifinal (Lucija Leko – Flight 4; Caisa-Marie Lindfors – Flight 4)
12:30 p.m. – Women’s Triple Jump Semifinal (Myla Canty – Flight 3)
4:15 p.m. – Women’s 100m Hurdles Quarterfinal (if qualified – Asjah Atkinson, Mari Testa, Saqqara Ruffin)
5:05 p.m. – Women’s 800m Quarterfinal (if qualified – Jayden Hill)
 
WORLD RECORD RETURNER
Discus thrower Mykolas Alekna is competing for the Bears once again after taking the 2024 season off to prepare for his debut Olympic Games, where he surpassed the previous Olympic record on the way to a silver medal. The 22-year-old phenom stunned the athletics world by breaking track & field’s oldest standing men’s record last April, posting a throw of 74.35m (243-11) at the Oklahoma Throws World Invitational to surpass a mark that had stood since 1986. He then broke it again last month, becoming the first man in history to surpass the 75-meter barrier with a mark of 75.56m (247-10) that also reset his own collegiate and ACC records.
 
Since enrolling at Berkeley in Fall 2021, Alekna has compiled an eye-popping résumé that has already elevated him into one of the sport’s legendary figures. The two-time World medalist, three-time Lithuanian Male Athlete of the Year and two-time semifinalist for The Bowerman set his first collegiate record as a freshman, later becoming the youngest-ever European discus champion and youngest World discus medalist in history at just 19 years of age; that year, he was also named a semifinalist for the AAU James E. Sullivan Award and the USTFCCCA West Region and Pac-12 Men’s Field Athlete of the Year.
 

Alekna has claimed a total of five facility records and nine meet records over the past four years, as well as two Pac-12 titles and two First-Team All-American nods. Most recently, he was named the top discus thrower in the world by Track & Field News and recorded his 22nd appearance on The Bowerman Watch List – third-most by any man and more than any thrower in history.
 
PODIUM POWERHOUSES
Cal athletes collected a total of 12 medals at the ACC Outdoor Championships. Mykolas Alekna (discus) and Giavonna Meeks (hammer) led the way with titles in their respective events, while Caisa-Marie Lindfors earned podium spots in two events (discus – silver; shot put – bronze). Both Lucija Leko (shot put – silver) and Johnny Goode (400m – bronze) broke school records on the way to their first conference medals, while Trevor Rogers posted a massive personal best in the long jump on the way to a second-place finish. Garrett MacQuiddy (1500m), Tyler Burns (pole vault) and Valentina Savva (hammer) added to Cal’s group of silver medalists, while Nick Godbehere (shot put) and Jared Freeman (hammer) clinched bronze.
 
ALL-ACC HONOREES
In addition to the medalists listed above, an additional six Bears picked up All-ACC honors as Cal finished with 18 all-conference athletes in a combined 22 events. Riley Knott placed fourth in both the high jump and the long jump while Jared Freeman took fourth in the discus for his second All-ACC selection and Lucija Leko did the same with a sixth-place finish in the women’s contest. Hurdlers Asjah Atkinson (100m hurdles) and Donovan Bradley (110m hurdles) each placed fourth, while teammate Loreal Wilson took sixth in the 400m hurdles. One more trio of throwers – hammer specialists Audrey Jacobs (fifth) and Adrianna Coleman (sixth) as well as discus thrower Charlie Dang (fifth) – rounded out the All-ACC squad.
 
THROW LOUD AND PROUD
Cal’s throws squad – which has set six indoor and 11 outdoor program top-10 marks this season – is putting up another elite year, led by returning Olympic discus throwers Mykolas Alekna and Caisa-Marie Lindfors. Hammer thrower Audrey Jacobs owns the Dutch U23 record and earned All-America status as a freshman in 2023, while Adrianna Coleman, a sophomore, has also reached the USATF U20 Championships in each of the past two years, taking bronze in the hammer in 2023.
 
The Bears also welcomed several top newcomers to the team this year. Cal’s throwing transfer class is headlined by two-time All-American Giavonna Meeks, who won Cal’s first ACC title (weight throw) in March and claimed the ACC hammer title two months later. Other new members of the squad include 2024 World U20 hammer silver medalist Valentina Savva, 2024 European Championships two-way competitor Lucija Leko (discus and shot put) and 2023 European U20 hammer medalist Kai Barham. Meeks (No. 2 weight throw, No. 4 hammer, No. 6 indoor shot put, No. 10 outdoor shot put), Savva (No. 3 hammer, No. 4 weight throw) and Leko (No. 1 outdoor shot put, No. 4 discus, No. 5 indoor shot put) have already recorded marks on Cal’s all-time top-10 lists, while UC Santa Barbara transfer Jared Freeman also now owns program top 10s in the indoor weight throw (No. 2), hammer (No. 7) and discus (No. 10).
 
HERE COME THE HURDLERS
The Golden Bear hurdlers have posted a breakthrough season in 2025, collecting six program top-10 times and four All-ACC nods between the indoor and outdoor campaigns. Asjah Atkinson, who was named All-ACC both indoors and outdoors, now ranks second all-time at Cal in the 60m hurdles and fourth in the 100m hurdles. She is joined on both lists by teammate Mari Testa, who moved into a tie for the program’s No. 5 time in the former and shares the No. 7 time in the latter with teammate Saqqara Ruffin. Donovan Bradley (110m hurdles) and Loreal Wilson (400m hurdles) each made the Outdoor All-ACC team, each posting Cal’s fifth-best time in their respective events at the ACC Outdoor Championships.
 
 
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