California track & field will compete in its first meet of 2026 Friday at the Spokane Sports Showcase, heading north to The Podium in Spokane, Washington, to face representatives from eight other collegiate teams, including former conference-mates USC and UCLA.
 
The meet begins with the women's weight throw at 10:30 a.m. PT and will be streamed on Runnerspace+. Live results will be available on AthleticTiming.
 
Last year, Cal's men finished fifth at the ACC Indoor Championships, while its women finished in a tie for 12th place. Both squads have reloaded after graduating many of their top performers, welcoming an additional 15 men and 14 women to the team.
 
A total of 17 new Golden Bears will be making their debuts with the program, with five of those – sprinters Lauren Gilhooly, Diana Scott, Kaitlyn Williams and Tiffany Williams, as well as multi-eventer Antonio Bayon – competing in multiple events.
 
SPOKANE SPORTS SHOWCASE (Jan. 19, The Podium, Spokane, Wash.)
Event Schedule
Live Results (AthleticTiming)
Live Stream (Runnerspace+)
 
CALIFORNIA ENTRIES (MEN)
Program top-10 holders marked with an asterisk
(FR) or (R-FR) indicates that the athlete is a freshman or redshirt freshman
 
60m –Javon Hampton Jr., Seth Johnson, Aidan Orias, Christian Trapps, Wazell Wright
200m – Aidan Orias, Avinash Schwarzkopf, Christian Trapps, Wazell Wright
400m – Arian Naim, Avinash Schwarzkopf
600m – Jackson Hein (FR)
1000m – Lamarr Kirk Jr.*
60m Hurdles – Antonio Bayon (FR), Luke Buddie, Matt Gladney
4x400m Relay – California
High Jump – Brandon Cheeks II, Victor Ezike Jr.
Pole Vault – Kai Anderson (FR), Antonio Bayon (FR), Luke Buddie, Seth Johnson, Sam Novak (FR), Will Siemens*
Long Jump – Jeremiah Bolaños, Brandon Cheeks II, Javon Hampton Jr., Seth Johnson, Jason Plumb*, Trevor Rogers*, Chukwunonso Udeh
Triple Jump – Jeremiah Bolaños, Kosi Nwafor
Shot Put – Antonio Bayon (FR), Luke Buddie, Nik Iwankiw, Seth Johnson, Matas Mikulenas (FR), Elliot Traxler (FR)
Weight Throw – Kai Barham, Pietro Camilli (FR), Miles Clark (R-FR)
                                                                                                                                                                            
CALIFORNIA ENTRIES (WOMEN)
Program top-10 holders marked with an asterisk
(FR) or (R-FR) indicates that the athlete is a freshman or redshirt freshman
 
60m – Lauren Gilhooly (FR), Caitlyn Johnson (FR), Paige Porter, Nairobi Smith, Mari Testa, Kaitlyn Williams (FR), Tiffany Williams (FR)
200m – Lauren Gilhooly (FR), Paige Porter, Diana Scott (FR), Nairobi Smith, Kaitlyn Williams (FR), Tiffany Williams (FR)
400m – Diana Scott (FR)
800m – Savannah Harris (FR)
1000m – Carolina Dawson
60m Hurdles – Saqqara Ruffin, Mari Testa*, Inara Ukawuba*
High Jump – Kimiko Hirahara (FR), Grace Reinhardt
Pole Vault – Shelly Coates (FR), Ali Sahaida*
Long Jump – Caitlyn Johnson (FR)
Triple Jump – Leah Anderson, Avery Hart (FR)
Shot Put – Lucija Leko*
Weight Throw – Adrianna Coleman*, Angie Schykerynec*
 
 
ALL-ACC RETURNERS
Ten Bears on this year's squad combined for 14 All-ACC honors (six indoor, eight outdoor) last season. Sophomore thrower Lucija Leko was responsible for three of those, with one first-team (outdoor shot put) and two second-team (indoor shot put, discus) nods, while classmates Trevor Rogers (long jump) and Valentina Savva (hammer, weight) each earned an outdoor silver medal and indoor second-team recognition. Senior long jumper Jason Plumb won conference bronze medals in two consecutive years, his most recent coming at the 2025 ACC Indoor Championships. The Indoor All-ACC group is rounded out by second-teamers Victor Ezike Jr. (high jump) and Seth Johnson (heptathlon), while the outdoor group also consists of second-team honorees Donovan Bradley (110m hurdles), Loreal Wilson (400m hurdles), Audrey Jacobs (hammer) and Adrianna Coleman (hammer). Of those, Johnson went on to claim Second-Team All-America status at the 2025 NCAA Indoor Championships while Savva was named Second-Team All-American at the NCAA Outdoor Championships, where both Leko and Jacobs also clinched All-America Honorable Mention nods.
 
INTERNATIONAL STARS
Three returning Bears followed up their collegiate seasons with high-level international competition in the summer of 2025. Valentina Savva, who broke the Cal freshman records in both the hammer and weight throws and earned Second-Team All-America honors in the former, crossed the 70-meter barrier for the first time to finish third at the European U23 Championships and set a new Cypriot record. Teammate and 2023 Second-Team All-American Audrey Jacobs also reached the hammer final at the European U23 Championships and finished second at the Dutch Championships, while Lucija Leko (Croatia) competed in both the discus and shot put at the European U23 Championships and finished seventh in the former. On the track, Mari Testa competed in the 100m hurdles at the Austrian U23 Championships, winning her first title to qualify her for the European U23 Championships.
 
HIGH HOPES FOR THE HURDLERS
Five returning Cal hurdlers posted program top-10 times in 2025 and will look to improve even further in 2026. Upperclassmen Mari Testa, Saqqara Ruffin and Loreal Wilson are each coming off breakout campaigns: Testa made her debut on Cal's indoor (No. 5, 60m hurdles) and outdoor (No. 8, 100m hurdles) all-time lists, while Ruffin's and Wilson's outdoor seasons saw them likewise appear on the top-10 lists for the first time at No. 6 (100m hurdles) and No. 5 (400m hurdles), respectively. Sophomore Inara Ukawuba raced just once in a Cal uniform before missing the outdoor season, but she matched the ninth-fastest 60m hurdles time in program history. On the men's side, Donovan Bradley, who had already posted Cal's fourth-fastest 60m hurdles time as a freshman in 2024, followed that up with the program's fifth-fastest 110m hurdles time as a sophomore.
 
ROOKIES ON WATCH
Cal is fielding a plethora of talented freshman looking to make some noise at the conference and national levels this season. The trio of Lauren Gilhooly, Kaitlyn Williams and Tiffany Williams lead a strong freshman sprints unit, with Gilhooly ranking among California's top high school girls in the 100m and 200m. South African middle-distance star Salma Bejia, who was the national U20 bronze medalist in 2024, was named the No. 10 women's 800m recruit by Track & Field News, while Bradley Arrey ran the third leg of a 4x800m California state champion relay squad that was third-fastest in the nation and Jackson Hein posted the fourth-fastest 800m time by a California high school boy in 2025. The pole vault group bears a pair of top Track & Field News-ranked recruits in Sam Novak (No. 2) and Kai Anderson (No. 12), both state champions in 2024; Novak, a native of Arizona, posted the fifth-highest jump by a high school boy nationwide in 2025 and is a two-time USATF U20 Championships competitor, while Anderson had the second-best mark among California high school boys last year. Horizontal jumpers Caitlyn Johnson (the 2025 No. 20 girls triple jumper in Texas) and Avery Hart (the 2025 No. 3 girls triple jumper and No. 4 girls long jumper in Massachusetts) look to bolster an already-impressive squad that has qualified at least one woman to the NCAA West Regionals in four of the past five years. For the throws, 2025 Italian U23 hammer silver medalist Pietro Camilli, 2025 Lithuanian U20 shot put champion Matas Mikulenas and 2025 California boys No. 2 shot putter Eliot Traxler hope to become the next Bear greats. Finally, Antonio Bayon, the No. 8 decathlon recruit (Track & Field News), looks to be another standout multi-eventer at Cal, joining a group that has seen nine men in program history collect a total of 15 All-America honors.
 
NEW YEAR, NEW STAFF
Cal's full-time coaching staff has two new faces this year in Tyler Burdorff and Nicole Matysik. Burdorff, who leads the throws unit, arrived at Cal from Maryland, where he coached two national-record holders, four USA Track & Field (USATF) Indoor Championships finalists, a European U20 Championships qualifier and two USATF U20 Championships qualifiers as well as two All-Americans. Matysik raced for Furman cross country and track & field as a collegiate runner, earning 11 combined All-SoCon honors and five conference titles. In addition to Burdorff and Matysik, this year's Bears are also receiving new instruction from two-time Olympic hammer thrower Stamatia Scarvelis as well as program alumni Carrick Denker (who won All-West Region honors in the 2024 cross country season) and Riley Knott (a three-time All-ACC jumper).
 
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