Sizeable Group Heads To NCAA Outdoor Championships

BERKELEY – California track & field’s record-setting season ends this week as a program-record group 17 qualifiers head to the NCAA Outdoor Championships, scheduled this year from June 7-10 at Mike A. Myers Stadium in Austin, Texas.
 
Combined, this group of Golden Bears has set one U23 world and continental record, one U20 national record, one facility record, eight meet records, 15 program top-10 marks (each of which is ranked sixth or better, including four school records) and one Cal freshman record this season.
 
Seven of Cal’s competitors appeared at the NCAA Championships in 2022, making the majority of this year’s group newcomers to the national season finale.
 
Event-by-Event Path to Austin:
 
Men’s 1500m: Junior Garrett MacQuiddy posted his season-best time of 3:41.26 at the Bryan Clay Invitational in April, later placing fifth at the Pac-12 Championships and following that up with a gutsy performance at the NCAA West Preliminary. After advancing to the quarterfinals with a time of 3:41.87, MacQuiddy forced his way through a tightly crowded pack on the final lap to clinch the final qualifying spot at 3:50.08 and become Cal’s first 1500m runner since 2015 to compete in the NCAA Championships.
 
Men’s Pole Vault: Senior Skyler Magula follows up his first career Pac-12 title with an appearance at the NCAA Championships, clearing the bar at 5.40m (17-8.5) at the NCAA West Preliminary to become Cal’s first male pole vaulter to advance this far since 2010. He aims to become the fourth Bear to win an NCAA men’s pole vault title; his PR of 5.55m (18-2.5), set two months ago at the Mt. SAC Relays, is tied for third best on the all-time program list.
 
Men’s Shot Put: Junior Jeff Duensing makes his NCAA Championships debut this year as the latest in Cal’s string of NCAA-qualifying shot putters (six of the past seven outdoor championships have featured a Cal man in the event). Duensing, who finished fifth at the Pac-12 Championships, set his current PR of 19.80m (64-11.5) at the NCAA West Preliminary, improving his old personal best by two feet, 10 inches and moving him up to a tie for third in program history.
 
Men’s Discus: Sophomore Mykolas Alekna continues to stand atop this year’s world leaderboard with his collegiate-record (and world U23 record) 71.00m (232-11), set at the 128th Big Meet, in addition to posting seven additional top-10 throws in collegiate history this season. For his efforts, he has been named to every…