California track & field's Ali Sahaida will compete on the national stage for the first time in her career Saturday at Arkansas' Randal Tyson Track Center in Fayetteville, Arkansas, going toe-to-toe with the best collegiate women's pole vaulters in the country for a chance at the NCAA Indoor Championship title.
 
The two-day meet will begin Friday morning and continue through Saturday evening. Both sessions will begin at 9 a.m. PT/11 a.m. CT, with the women's pole vault scheduled for 2 p.m. PT/4 p.m. CT on the second day. ESPN+ will broadcast a live stream of the meet, while FlashResults will provide live results.
 
This is the first time that a female Cal pole vaulter has reached the NCAA Indoor Championships since 2018, when Lauren Martinez placed 10th with a mark of 4.21m (13-9.75). The first Cal women's pole vaulter to compete at this meet was Katie Morgan in 2009, while Allison Stokke posted the best indoor finish by a Bear female vaulter with an eighth-place 4.10m (13-5.25).
 
Sahaida, a senior from El Dorado Hills who was ranked as the No. 12 seed for the upcoming contest, went undefeated in the indoor regular season with four event titles and earned her first conference podium spot (and first all-conference honors) with a third-place mark of 4.45m (14-7.25) at the ACC Indoor Championships on Feb. 28, which was the second-best performance of her career behind her program-record 4.49m (14-8.25) at the New Mexico Collegiate Classic three weeks prior.
 
NCAA INDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS (March 13-14 – Fayetteville, Ark.)
Event Info
Live Stream (ESPN+)
Live Results
 
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. Of the 20 individuals making up those event squads, seven earned All-ACC recognition at the ACC Indoor Championships.
 
ALL-ACC HONOREES
Eleven Bears placed among the top six in their respective events at the ACC Indoor Championships to reach all-conference status. Mari Testa (60m hurdles), Nairobi Smith (200m) and Ali Sahaida (pole vault) earned first-team recognition for the women, with Testa placing second and Smith and Sahaida both taking third in their respective events while the first two also set new program records. Nik Iwankiw claimed first-team honors for Cal's men in the shot put with a third-place finish and the No. 10 mark in program history. Cal's presence on the All-ACC Second Team included two pole vaulters (Kai Anderson and Will Siemens), two long jumpers (Trevor Rogers and Jason Plumb), a triple jumper (Jeremiah Bolaños) a shot putter (Lucija Leko) and a weight thrower (Adrianna Coleman).
 
RECORDS, RECORDS, RECORDS
The Bears have reached six 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), junior Mari Testa (60m hurdles - 8.21, Feb. 13) and Nairobi Smith (200m - 23.47, Feb. 28) 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. 12 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.
 
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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