Four members of the California track & field team will conclude their indoor seasons this week as Giavonna Meeks, David Foster, Tyler Burns and Seth Johnson head to Virginia Beach, Virginia, for the NCAA Indoor Championships on March 14-15. The meet will take place at the Virginia Beach Sports Center, with the first day's events starting at 6:15 a.m. PT and the second day's events at 6:30 a.m.
 
The Golden Bears' highest seed in the championships is redshirt sophomore weight thrower Giavonna Meeks, who is ranked No. 2 nationally this year and No. 2 all-time at Cal. Meeks threw her personal best of 23.59m (77-4.75) at the ACC Indoor Championships two weeks ago to earn her first conference gold and set a new meet record. She is one of five women in this weekend's competition who have thrown over 23 meters this year, a group which is led by Minnesota's Anthonett Nabwe at 24.22m (79-5.5).
 
The highest that a Cal female weight thrower has ever placed at the NCAA Indoor Championships is third, achieved by alumna Camryn Rogers in 2022. This will be the fifth appearance by a Cal woman in the event, following Chioma Amaechi in 2014 and Rogers in 2021-23. Meeks placed sixth at last year's NCAA Indoor Championships while competing for Vanderbilt.
 
Senior David Foster has yet to place lower than second this year in the 60m but will have his work cut out for him in this weekend's competition, where he is the No. 8 seed with his school-record 6.54 that is tied for sixth-fastest in the nation this year. Like Meeks, Foster also won his first conference title at the ACC Indoor Championships, outracing the rest of the field by .08 seconds.
 
Ten men in this weekend's contest have run 6.55 or better this year. Foster's top competition will be Auburn's Kanyinsola Ajayi and Israel Okon, who have each run 6.51 this year, as well as USC's JC Stevenson, who has a season-best time of 6.50 (adjusted for altitude to 6.52). This will be Foster's second-straight appearance at the NCAA Indoor Championships, following an 11th-place finish in 2024 when he was also the first men's 60m sprinter in program history to qualify for the meet.
 
Pole vaulter Tyler Burns, a redshirt junior, is ranked sixth in the nation with a school-record PR of 5.62m (18-5.25). He took third place at the ACC Indoor Championships for his second conference medal and is one of 10 men who have posted marks higher than 5.60 meters this year. The favorite this weekend will be Texas A&M's Aleksandr Solovev, who has posted the 15th-best jump in the world this year at 5.80m (19-0.25).
 
This will be Burns's first appearance at any NCAA Championships as well as the second-straight year that Cal has advanced a men's pole vaulter, following alumnus Skyler Magula's appearance in 2024. The highest that a Cal man has placed in the event is fourth (Brent Burns, 1992), while the younger Burns is just the fourth man in program history to qualify in the event.
 
Seth Johnson, an indoor redshirt sophomore, will be making his NCAA Championships debut this weekend and competing in the heptathlon as the No. 11 seed. His PR of 5800 points ranks third all-time at Cal and is tied for the 12th-best score nationwide. He also has the program's No. 10 60m hurdles time at 7.96, which he set at the ACC Indoor Championships for the conference's 14th-fastest time this season.
 
Two of Johnson's fellow entrants – Peyton Bair of Mississippi State and Jip DeGreef of Illinois – have surpassed the 6000-point mark this year at 6014 and 6070, respectively. Johnson will be the fifth Cal heptathlete to appear at the NCAA Indoor Championships, following in the footsteps of Jonas Hallgrimsson (2006), Mike Morrison (2010-11), Tyler Brendel (2019) and Hakim McMorris (2023). Of those, it was Morrison who posted the highest finish, placing third in 2010.
 
NCAA INDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS (Friday-Saturday, March 14-15, Virginia Beach, Virginia – Virginia Beach Sports Center)
Meet Hub
Event Schedule
Day 1 Start Lists – Men, Women
Day 2 Start Lists – Men, Women
Live Results
 
STREAM LINKS (ESPN+)
Day 1 Track – Men, Women
Day 2 Track – Men, Women
Field Events – Day 1, Day 2
 
NCAA INDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS SCHEDULE – CALIFORNIA ENTRIES (All Times PT)
Friday, March 14
Men's Heptathlon 60m – 6:15 a.m. (Seth Johnson)
Men's Heptathlon Long Jump – 6:50 a.m. (Seth Johnson)
Men's Heptathlon Shot Put – 8 a.m. (Seth Johnson)
Men's Heptathlon High Jump – 9:45 a.m. (Seth Johnson)
Women's Weight Throw – 11:15 a.m. (Giavonna Meeks)
Men's Pole Vault – 3 p.m. (Tyler Burns)
Men's 60m Semifinal – 4:18 p.m. (David Foster)
 
Saturday, March 15
Men's Heptathlon 60m Hurdles – 6:30 a.m. (Seth Johnson)
Men's Heptathlon Pole Vault – 7:30 a.m. (Seth Johnson)
Men's Heptathlon 1000m – 11:30 a.m. (Seth Johnson)
Men's 60m Final – 12:10 p.m. (David Foster – if qualified)
 
BEARS SEND FOUR TO NCAA INDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS
For the second year in a row, Cal has qualified four individuals to the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships. Giavonna Meeks, the reigning ACC Champion in the weight throw, ranks No. 2 nationwide at 23.59m (77-4.75) and was a First-Team All-American while competing for VanderbIlt in 2024, while fellow ACC Champion David Foster (60m), tied for sixth-fastest in the nation at 6.54, earned Second-Team All-America recognition in the event that same year. Pole vaulter Tyler Burns also ranks sixth in the nation, qualifying for his first NCAA Championships after setting a school-record mark of 5.62m (18-5.25) - sixth-best in the NCAA - in January. Rounding out the group is indoor redshirt sophomore Seth Johnson, who will also make his NCAA Championships debut and ranks 12th nationwide in the heptathlon with a best point total of 5800.
 
ALL-ACC HONOREES
Cal's men earned eight All-ACC honors and its women five at the Bears' first-ever ACC Indoor Championships on March 1-3, with the team's four medalists named First-Team All-ACC: Giavonna Meeks was Cal's first champion of the meet, posting a new meet record in the weight throw,  while top sprinter David Foster won his first conference title in the 60m after outpacing the field by .08 seconds. Jason Plumb and Tyler Burns took bronze in the long jump and pole vault, respectively, marking the second time in each of their careers that they have placed third at a conference meet. Men's Second-Team honors went to Johnny Goode (400m), Victor Ezike Jr. (high jump), Riley Knott (high jump), Trevor Rogers (long jump) and Seth Johnson (heptathlon); on the women's side, recognition went to Aysha Shaheed (60m), Asjah Atkinson (60m hurdles), Lucija Leko (shot put) and Valentina Savva (weight throw). Rogers, Shaheed, Atkinson, Leko and Savva also set new program top-10 marks with their performances.
 
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.
 
SPRINTERS ON THE RISE
Cal's sprinters and hurdlers are prepped for another big outdoor season, following an indoor campaign in which they posted 13 new program top 10s and four school records. David Foster, who will be competing at the NCAA Indoor Championships in one week's time, is a three-time All-American as well as the first man in Cal history to break the all-conditions 10-second barrier in the 100m. Newcomer Johnny Goode posted a breakout indoor season in which he set program records in the 200m, 400m and 4x400m relay; he was joined in the latter event by Isaiah Shaw, Arian Naim and Iyan Godwin. On the women's side, Aysha Shaheed shattered her own program record in the 200m. Foster (No. 1 100m, No. 1 4x100m), Shaw (No. 2 400m) and Shaheed (No. 2 100m, No. 4 200m) each appear on Cal's outdoor all-time top-10 lists, where they are joined by teammates Chase Williams (No. 5 100m, No. 1 4x100m) and Asjah Atkinson (No. 6 100m hurdles). Both Williams and Atkinson also boast top-three rankings in program indoor history. In the 2025 outdoor campaign, two 100m hurdlers - Mari Testa and Saqqara Ruffin - have posted program No. 8 and No. 10 times, respectively; Testa also ranks 5th in indoor program history.
 
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