California track & field will return to the desert one final time this weekend, sending many of their best athletes to the New Mexico Collegiate Classic on Friday and Saturday for its penultimate regular-season indoor meet.
 
The Albuquerque Convention Center will play host to 15 combined top-25 teams, as well as one Division II top-5 team. Of those Division I squads, six rank in the top 10 nationwide, led by USC's No. 3 men and Texas Tech's No. 3 women.
 
NEW MEXICO COLLEGIATE CLASSIC (Friday-Saturday, Albuquerque Convention Center – Albuquerque, N.M.)
Live Stream (FloTrack)
Live Results
 
CALIFORNIA ENTRIES (MEN)
Program Top-10 holders marked with an asterisk
60m Invitational – David Foster*, Deon McCauley
200m Unseeded – Isaiah Shaw, Deon McCauley
400m Invitational – Isaiah Shaw*, Johnny Goode*
60m Hurdles – Donovan Bradley*
High Jump – Brandon Cheeks II
Pole Vault Section A – Tyler Burns*
Pole Vault Section B – Parker Terrill, Will Siemens
Long Jump – Jason Plumb*, Trevor Rogers, Brandon Cheeks II
Triple Jump – Jeremiah Bolaños, Kosi Nwafor
Shot Put – Nik Iwankiw
Weight Throw – Kai Barham
Heptathlon – Seth Johnson*
 
CALIFORNIA ENTRIES (WOMEN)
Program Top-10 holders marked with an asterisk
60m Invitational – Aysha Shaheed*, Ryan Lacefield, Paige Porter, Mari Testa
200m Unseeded – Paige Porter
400m Invitational – Ryan Lacefield*, Nairobi Smith
800m – Jayden Hill*
60m Hurdles – Mari Testa*, Asjah Atkinson*
High Jump – Ashanti Elie*
Pole Vault – Ali Sahaida*
Long Jump – Asjah Atkinson, Ashanti Elie
Triple Jump – Leah Anderson
Shot Put – Giavonna Meeks*, Caisa-Marie Lindfors*, Lucija Leko
Weight Throw – Giavonna Meeks*, Adrianna Coleman*, Angie Schykerynec*, Audrey Jacobs, Amanda Spear
Pentathlon – Torre Anderson*
 
 
IN THE RANKINGS
Cal's men received a No. 18 national ranking from the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) this week, marking the squad's highest placement since 2011. Six event squads from the team have also earned spots in the national top 25, led by the women's weight throw unit (third) and the men's long jump unit (eighth). 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 - also an NCAA lead).
 
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 record (45.96) and 200m records (21.06) while also contributing to a new indoor 4x400m relay program record (3:12.69). He currently ranks No. 8 of all male 400m runners in Division I this season and is the ACC leader in the event, having broken the school record in each of his three meets so far.
 
SPRINTERS ON THE RISE
The 2024 season was one for the books for Cal's sprinters, who posted a total of 15 program top-10 times by eight athletes; five of those athletes have returned to compete for the Bears in 2025. 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 the No. 2 60m and No. 5 100m times in program history, while Isaiah Shaw shaved 1.65 seconds off his 400m PR on his way to the No. 2 outdoor and No. 3 indoor program spots. On the women's side, Aysha Shaheed claimed Cal's fourth-fastest outdoor 200m time, while Ryan Lacefield posted the second-fastest indoor 400m time and seventh-fastest outdoor 400m time in the program record books. In 2025, Cal's sprinters have set nine new program top 10s, including four school records.
 
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