The California track & field team will open its outdoor season this week with two days of competition at Edwards Stadium, with the Cal Invitational acting as the first of the Golden Bears' two home meets this season. Friday will feature just two events (the men's and women's hammer throw, beginning at 3:30 p.m. PT), while the other events will take place Saturday starting at 9:30 a.m. Live results for both days will be available on RecordTiming.
 
Ten of Cal's entries have recorded at least one outdoor top-10 program all-time entry, with junior Lucija Leko earning one each in the shot put and discus (including the shot put school record). The largest Cal contingents on the men's side will be in the long jump (seven entries), 200m (six entries) and 400m (six entries), while the women's 100m and 1500m will have seven and six Bears competing, respectively.
 
Several Cal newcomers will also be making their season debuts, having sat out the indoor season. The men's group includes freshman sprinters Nathan Lee and Ikembuchukwu Udeh (who are both entered in the 200m and 400m) as well as rookie 1500m runners Bradley Arrey and Jack Paradise. For the women, South African middle-distance star Salma Bejia will compete in the 800m for her first collegiate race, while newcomer Lily Montilla will compete in the 1500m and All-America Honorable Mention graduate transfer Zahra Amos will appear in the high jump.
 
This weekend will also feature the indoor finale for alumna Georgia Hunter Bell, who will race in the 1500m at the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Torun, Poland. Hunter Bell, who is currently ranked No. 2 globally in the 800m and No. 5 in the 1500m, has a personal best of 3:59.84 in the latter event (good for third place at the 2025 World Indoor Championships) and a season best of 4:00.04. The preliminary rounds for the women's 1500m will take place Friday at 10:22 a.m. PT/6:22 p.m. CET, with the top-two finishers in each heat qualifying for Sunday's final (11:22 a.m. PT/7:22 p.m. CET)
 
Information on where to watch the meet is available on the World Athletics website, while live results and start lists can be viewed here.
 
CAL INVITATIONAL (March 20-21 – Berkeley, California)
Event Info
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
 
100m – Josh Myers, Aidan Orias, Jakobi Smith, Chukwunonso Udeh
200m – Nathan Lee (FR), Arian Naim, Isaiah Shaw, Jakobi Smith, Ikembuchukwu Udeh (FR), Wazell Wright
400m – Luke Buddie, Seth Johnson, Nathan Lee (FR), Arian Naim, Isaiah Shaw*, Ikembuchukwu Udeh (FR)
800m – Caden Carney, Rowan FitzGerald, Zac Gibson
1500m – Bradley Arrey (FR), Lamarr Kirk Jr., Jack Paradise (FR), Gabriel Rodriguez, John Sesteaga
5000m – Alexander Lodewick, Roland Ruckmann-Barnes
400m Hurdles – Daniel Chen, Luke Tanguay
4x100m - California
High Jump – Brandon Cheeks II, Victor Ezike Jr.
Pole Vault – Kai Anderson (FR), Will Siemens, Parker Terrill*
Long Jump – David Brok, Luke Buddie, Victor Ezike Jr., Javon Hampton Jr., Seth Johnson, Jason Plumb*, Chukwunonso Udeh
Triple Jump – Jeremiah Bolaños, Frankie Cruz Jr., Victor Ezike Jr., Kosi Nwafor, Chukwunonso Udeh
Shot Put – Antonio Bayon (FR), Matas Mikulėnas (FR), Eliot Traxler (FR)
Discus – Antonio Bayon (FR), Luke Buddie, Nik Iwankiw, Seth Johnson, Eliot Traxler (FR)
Hammer – Kai Barham, Kai Burich, 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
 
100m – Lauren Gilhooly (FR), Caitlyn Johnson (FR), Paige Porter, Saqqara Ruffin, Inara Ukawuba, Kaitlyn Williams (FR), Tiffany Williams (FR)
200m – Paige Porter, Diana Scott (FR), Nairobi Smith, Kaitlyn Williams (FR), Tiffany Williams (FR)
400m – Diana Scott (FR)
800m – Salma Bejia (FR), Savannah Harris (FR)
1500m – Carolina Dawson, Addie Johnson, Sabine Kim (R-FR), Georgia McCorkle, Lily Montilla (FR), Sophie Tau
100m Hurdles – Fallyn Gowans, Saqqara Ruffin*, Mari Testa*, Inara Ukawuba
400m Hurdles – Jaya Westby
4x100m - California
High Jump – Zahra Amos, Kimiko Hirahara (FR), Grace Reinhardt
Pole Vault – Shelly Coates (FR), Anya Patel (FR)
Long Jump – Avery Hart (FR), Caitlyn Johnson (FR)
Triple Jump – Leah Anderson, Myla Canty*, Avery Hart (FR)
Shot Put – Lucija Leko*
Discus – Lucija Leko*
Hammer – Adrianna Coleman*, Audrey Jacobs*, Isabella Popejoy, Valentina Savva*, Angie Schykerynec
 
 
VAULT QUEEN
Senior Ali Sahaida placed fifth at the 2026 NCAA Indoor Championships in her first time competing on the national stage, holding her own in the highest mark-for-place field ever assembled at the indoor collegiate level with a school-record mark of 4.56m (14-11.5) to earn First-Team All-America status. It was the highest indoor finish by a Cal women's pole vaulter in program history and the second-best finish overall, only behind Katie Morgan's outdoor national title in 2008.
 
IN THE RANKINGS
Cal finished the indoor season with 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, who ended the indoor season as the NCAA's No. 1 freshman and the No. 3 pole vaulter in the conference, 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 eventual All-American 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.
 
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 posted 11 additional indoor program top-10 entries this season. For the men, Kirk (No. 5) and Hein (No. 7) have each made their mark in the indoor 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 indoor list. Pretre has also posted the No. 2 time in program indoor 3000m history. On the women's side, Carolina Dawson is now ranked No. 10 in Cal indoor 800m history, while Addie Johnson has posted the program's No. 7 and No. 3 times in the indoor mile and indoor 3000m, respectively. Both Sophie Tau and Sabine Kim have also reached new heights on the Bears' all-time indoor 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 Massachussetts) 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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