Twenty-five men and 16 women from the California track & field team will be competing for conference titles over the next three days, as the Golden Bears will meet with squads from the 17 other ACC Institutions at the ACC Indoor Championships on Thursday-Saturday. The meet will be hosted at the TRACK at new balance, a world-class facility in Boston.
 
All three day's events are scheduled to begin at 8 a.m. PT/11 a.m. ET. The competition will be streamed on ACCNX, with live results available on FlashResults. No. 8 Virginia will be heavily favored on the men's side, as only Virginia Tech (No. 15) also represents the ACC in the national top-25 rankings. For the women, No. 9 Clemson is expected to be in the point position, followed in the national standings by No. 12 Stanford and No. 24 Florida State.
 
In Cal's first year as a member of the ACC in 2025, its men placed fifth and its women tied for 12th place at that year's indoor championships, with individual titles claimed in the men's 60m and women's weight throw. Six of that meet's Indoor All-ACC honorees have returned to this year's squad (including long jump bronze medalist Jason Plumb, who currently ranks second in the conference).
 
Joining Plumb in the conference's individual top-five rankings are pole vaulter Sam Novak (No. 3), hurdler Mari Testa (No. 4), pole vaulter Ali Sahaida (No. 4), heptathlete Seth Johnson (No. 4) and weight thrower Adrianna Coleman (No. 5). The Bears will have four entries apiece in the men's long jump and the men's pole vault, while the men's and women's weight throw will field three Cal athletes each.
 
Six returning Bears – sprinters Wazell Wright and Paige Porter; distance runners Lamarr Kirk Jr., Rowan FitzGerald and Carolina Dawson; and hurdler Inara Ukawuba – are slated to compete in their first conference track & field championships (indoor or outdoor). Eight freshmen (six men and two women) will also compete for the Blue & Gold.
 
Cal is two weeks removed from its last outings of the indoor regular season, a split-squad affair where the distance runners competed at the Husky Classic in Seattle and the rest headed to Reno, Nevada, for the Battle Born Classic. The former group collected eight new program top-10 entries, the top result being junior Addie Johnson's time of 9:06.64 in the women's 3000m that ranks No. 3 in Cal history, while the latter unit posted eight program top 10s of their own (including a new school record of 8.21 set by junior Mari Testa in the 60m hurdles).
 
ACC INDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS (Feb. 26-28 – Boston, Massachussetts)
Event Info
Live Stream (ACCNX)
Live Results
 
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 – Aidan Orias*, Wazell Wright
200m – Wazell Wright*
800m – Jackson Hein* (FR), Lamarr Kirk Jr.*
Mile – Caden Carney*, Rowan FitzGerald*
3000m – Justin Pretre*
4x400m Relay – California
High Jump – Victor Ezike Jr.
Pole Vault – Kai Anderson (FR), Sam Novak* (FR), Will Siemens*, Parker Terrill
Long Jump – Javon Hampton Jr., Jason Plumb*, Trevor Rogers*, Chukwunonso Udeh
Triple Jump – Jeremiah Bolaños*, Kosi Nwafor
Shot Put – Nik Iwankiw, Matas Mikulėnas (FR)
Weight Throw – Kai Barham*, Pietro Camilli* (FR), Miles Clark* (R-FR)
Heptathlon – Luke Buddie, Seth Johnson*
                                                                                                                                                                            
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 – Paige Porter*, Nairobi Smith*
200m – Nairobi Smith*
800m – Carolina Dawson*
3000m – Addie Johnson*
5000m – Sophie Tau*
60m Hurdles – Saqqara Ruffin*, Mari Testa*, Inara Ukawuba*
Pole Vault – Ali Sahaida*
Long Jump – Avery Hart (FR), Caitlyn Johnson (FR)
Triple Jump – Leah Anderson, Avery Hart (FR)
Shot Put – Lucija Leko*
Weight Throw – Adrianna Coleman*, Valentina Savva*, Angie Schykerynec*
 
 
IN THE RANKINGS
Cal has five different four-deep event squads ranked in the Division I top 25, with the long jump unit leading the men at No. 6 nationwide and the weight throw group pacing the women at No. 12. The Bears also have a pair of individual top-25 athletes in Ali Sahaida (pole vault) and Seth Johnson (heptathlete), who respectively rank No. 11 and No. 22 in the nation.
 
RECORDS, RECORDS, RECORDS
The Bears have reached five different school records and three different freshman records so far this season.  On the men's side, new all-time program bests have been set by junior Lamarr Kirk Jr. (1000m - 2:27.97, Jan. 16), freshman Jackson Hein (600m - 1:18.83, Jan. 16) and redshirt junior Seth Johnson (300m - 34.65, Jan. 24), while senior Ali Sahaida (pole vault - 4.49m/14-8.25, Feb. 6) and junior Mari Testa (60m hurdles - 8.21, Feb. 13) have set new program bests for the women. In addition to Hein's 600m rookie record, Sam Novak and Pietro Camilli have also reset a pair of Cal all-time freshman marks multiple times: Novak, the first freshman pole vaulter in program history to cross the 17-foot mark indoors, is now tied for third in program history with a best mark of 5.45m (17-10.5), while Camilli has become Cal's first male freshman weight thrower to cross 20 meters with a top result of 20.44m (67-0.75) that ranks No. 2 in school history.
 
GOING UP
Cal's pole vaulters are responsible for three of the Bears' four ACC weekly awards this season.  Sam Novak was named the ACC Men's Freshman of the week in his collegiate debut after surpassing a 19-year-old program freshman record and winning the event title, then won the same award three weeks later after crushing that mark with another win, becoming the first Cal pole vaulter in history to win multiple weekly awards in the same season.  Novak shared the glory of his second win with Ali Sahaida, who won her third consecutive event title with her third straight PR to shatter an 8-year-old program record and was named the ACC Women's Field Athlete of the Week. The two are the first Cal pole vaulting duo in history to be honored with a weekly award on the same day. Currently, Sahaida sits fourth in the ACC with the nation's No. 11 mark, while Novak is the NCAA's top-ranked freshman and No. 3 overall in the conference.
 
NEW RISERS IN THE ACC
A Cal student-athlete has been named the ACC Men's Freshman of the Week three times so far this season thanks to a trio of outstanding performances that established those individuals as the conference's top rookies in their events. Pole vaulter Sam Novak tied for No. 6 in Cal history in his collegiate debut at the Spokane Sports Showcase, then moved into a tie for No. 3 in Cal history (and the top spot by a freshman nationwide this year) at the New Mexico Collegiate Classic. Pietro Camilli recorded an indoor weight throw mark that was fourth-best in program history at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Invitational to earn his first ACC award (and is now No. 2 in program history after crossing the 20-meter barrier at the New Mexico Collegiate Classic). Middle-distance star Jackson Hein will be a strong contender for a weekly award moving forward, having posted the top time by an ACC freshman in the men's 800m (Husky Classic) and breaking Cal's 600m record at the Spokane Sports Showcase.
 
HIGH HOPES FOR THE HURDLERS
Five returning Cal hurdlers posted program top-10 times in 2025 and are looking to improve even further in 2026. Upperclassmen Mari Testa, Saqqara Ruffin and Loreal Wilson are each coming off breakout campaigns: Testa, the reigning Austrian U23 100m hurdles champion, 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. So far in 2026, Testa (No. 1), Ruffin (No. 5) and Ukawuba (No. 9) have already posted program top-10 entries in the women's 60m hurdles, with the four-deep squad ranking 18th in the nation this year.
 
THEY'RE GOING THE DISTANCE
A hungry Cal squad has come into the season ready to rise to the challenge in a conference that is renowned for producing top-notch distance runners. In addition to the program records set by Kirk and Hein, the Bears' distance group has posted 11 more program top-10 entries this season. For the men, Kirk (No. 5) and Hein (No. 7) have each made their mark in the 800m, while three milers - Justin Pretre (No. 2), Caden Carney (No. 7) and Rowan FitzGerald (No. 10) - have likewise posted new times on Cal's all-time list. Pretre has also posted the No. 2 time in program 3000m history. On the women's side, Carolina Dawson is now ranked No. 10 in Cal 800m history, while Addie Johnson has posted the program's No. 7 and No. 3 times in the mile and 3000m, respectively. Both Sophie Tau and Sabine Kim have also reached new heights on the Bears' all-time 5000m list, with Tau at No. 5 and Kim at No. 7.
 
ALL-ACC RETURNERS
Ten Bears on this year's squad combined for 14 All-ACC honors (six indoor, eight outdoor) last season. Junior 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. Both Leko and Jacobs also clinched All-America Honorable Mention nods outdoors.
 
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 U.S. Track & Field (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 Mikulėnas 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 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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