The California track & field team is set for three days of top-level competition this weekend as the Golden Bears travel to Louisville, Kentucky, for the ACC Indoor Championships. The meet will begin Saturday morning and conclude Monday at the Norton Healthcare Sports & Learning Center. All three days will be broadcast on ACCNX.
 
Three men's teams (No. 3 North Carolina, No. 8 Virginia and No. 20 Virginia Tech) and four women's teams (No. 6 Stanford, No. 20 Notre Dame, No. 21 Clemson and No. 25 NC State) represent the ACC in the national top-25 rankings. Eight new ACC records have been set this season, with three of those – the men's mile (Ethan Strand, North Carolina), the men's 3000m (Ethan Strand, North Carolina) and the men's distance medley relay (Virginia) also acting as new collegiate records.
 
This will be the last chance for Cal athletes to qualify for the NCAA Indoor Championships in Virginia Beach, Virginia, in two weeks. Individuals will need a top-16 national mark to advance, while each relay squad will need to rank top 12 overall. Currently, four athletes – Giavonna Meeks (weight throw No. 2), Tyler Burns (pole vault No. 4), David Foster (60m No. 6) and Seth Johnson (heptathlon No. 9) fulfill that criteria.
 
ACC INDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS (Saturday-Monday, Norton Healthcare Sports & Learning Center – Louisville, Ky.)
Meet Schedule – theACC.com
Live Stream (ACCNX) – Saturday | Sunday | Monday
Live Results - FlashResults
 
CALIFORNIA ENTRIES (MEN)
Program Top-10 holders marked with an asterisk
ACC leaders in bold
60m – David Foster*, Chase Williams*
200m – Johnny Goode*
400m – Johnny Goode*, Isaiah Shaw*
800m – Iyan Godwin*
Mile – Garrett MacQuiddy*, Justin Pretre*, Caden Carney
3000m – Justin Pretre*, Garrett MacQuiddy*, Caden Carney
60m Hurdles – Donovan Bradley*
4x400m – California A*
DMR – California A*
High Jump – Riley Knott, Victor Ezike Jr.
Pole Vault – Tyler Burns*, Will Siemens*, Parker Terrill
Long Jump – Jason Plumb*, Javon Hampton Jr., Trevor Rogers, Chukwunonso Udeh
Triple Jump – Jeremiah Bolaños, Kosi Nwafor
Shot Put – Nik Iwankiw
Weight Throw – Jared Freeman*
Heptathlon – Seth Johnson*
 
CALIFORNIA ENTRIES (WOMEN)
Program Top-10 holders marked with an asterisk
ACC leaders in bold
60m – Aysha Shaheed*, Zanae Woods
200m – Aysha Shaheed*
400m – Ryan Lacefield*
800m – Jayden Hill*
3000m – Addie Johnson
5000m – Sophie Tau*
60m Hurdles – Mari Testa*, Asjah Atkinson*
4x400m – California A
High Jump – Ashanti Elie*, Jade Neser
Pole Vault – Ali Sahaida*
Triple Jump – Myla Canty*, Leah Anderson
Shot Put – Caisa-Marie Lindfors*, Lucija Leko*, Giavonna Meeks*
Weight Throw – Giavonna Meeks*, Valentina Savva*, Adrianna Coleman*, Angie Schykerynec*, Audrey Jacobs, Amanda Spear
Pentathlon – Torre Anderson*
 
 
IN THE RANKINGS
Five event squads from the team have earned spots in the national top 25, led by the women's weight throw unit (fourth) and the men's long jump unit (11th). In total, Cal has five ACC-leading performances this season, courtesy of David Foster (men's 60m), Johnny Goode (men's 400m), Tyler Burns (men's pole vault), Jason Plumb (men's long jump) and Giavonna Meeks (women's weight throw).
 
WORLD RECORD RETURNER
Discus thrower Mykolas Alekna will compete for the Bears once more 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.
 
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. Most recently, he was named the top discus thrower in the world by Track & Field News and landed a spot on The Bowerman Preseason Watch List for the third consecutive year, becoming just the fourth man in award history to make a watch list in four different calendar years.
 
THROW LOUD AND PROUD
Cal's throws squad - which has already set six program indoor top-10 marks this season - looks prepped for 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 javelin specialist Carolina Visca set the school record as a rookie and was also named an All-American in 2023. 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 welcome several top newcomers to the team this year. Cal's throwing transfer class is headlined by Giavonna Meeks, who was an All-American weight thrower at Vanderbilt and reached the U.S. Olympic Trials in the hammer. The new freshmen 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.
 
BEYOND THE NCAA
In addition to its standout throws squad, Cal boasts multiple additional athletes with experience on big-time national or international stages. Both David Foster (100m) and Tyler Burns (pole vault) were semifinalists at the 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials after posting fantastic winter and spring seasons; the former also has a world medal to his name, claiming bronze with the Team USA 4x100m relay squad at the 2022 World U20 Championships. Later that summer, sophomore Justin Pretre represented Canada in the 1500m at the 2024 World U20 Championships after winning its national U20 title.
 
GO, JOHNNY, GO
Junior transfer Johnny Goode (College of San Mateo) has been a revelation for the Bears this season, crushing Cal's indoor 400m (45.96) and 200m records (21.06) while also contributing to a new indoor 4x400m relay program record (3:12.69). He is the top-ranked 400m runner in the ACC this year, breaking the school record in each of his first three meets. For his efforts, he was named Cal Athletics' January Gatorade Student-Athlete of the Month.
 
SPRINTERS ON THE RISE
Cal's sprinters posted a total of 15 program top-10 times by eight athletes in 2024; this year, five of those athletes have returned to compete for the Bears. David Foster set new program records in the 60m, 100m and 4x100m relay, also becoming the first man in Cal history to break the all-conditions 10-second barrier in the 100m and picking up All-America nods in all three events. Chase Williams, who also contributed to the school-record relay time, posted top-five program times in the 60m and 100m, while Isaiah Shaw notched top-three times in the indoor and outdoor 400m. On the women's side, Aysha Shaheed claimed Cal's fourth-fastest outdoor 200m time, while Ryan Lacefield posted top-seven times in both the indoor and outdoor 400m. This year, Cal's sprinters have set 12 new program top 10s, including four indoor school records: the men's 200m and 400m (Johnny Goode), the men's 4x400m relay (Shaw, Arian Naim, Iyan Godwin, Goode) and the women's 200m (Shaheed).
 
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