Four More Bears Named All-Americans On Day Two

Anna Purchase took third place in the women’s hammer throw to finish her career at Cal.

T&F6/8/2023 10:25 PM | By: Cal Athletics

Purchase, Turner, Jacobs, Visca Add To Accolades

AUSTIN, TEXAS – California track & field added another quartet of All-Americans on Thursday at the NCAA Outdoor Championships, with three throwers and a pole vaulter overcoming an hour-long weather delay at Mike A. Myers Stadium to record performances that ranked among the best in the nation. The Golden Bears now have six All-Americans through two days of competition, matching last year’s four-day total.
 
Senior Anna Purchase closed out her Golden Bear career with her highest-ever NCAA finish while also posting her second-farthest throw to date. The Nottingham, England native launched the hammer 71.47m (237-4) on her first throw to take an early lead, eventually finishing third to earn her second straight First Team All-American nod and score the first six points for the Bears’ women. Cal hammer throwers have now received First Team All-American honors in four straight Outdoor Championships.
 
Purchase, who hopes to qualify for this summer’s World Athletics Championships, will now enter her pro career with the distinction of owning the No. 6 mark in collegiate history (73.02m/239-7), which is also the No. 4 mark in Pac-12 history and the No. 2 mark on Cal’s all-time list.
 
Freshman Audrey Jacobs, the second rookie in program history to compete in the women’s hammer throw at the NCAA Championships, also posted her best effort on her first throw. Although her mark of 63.77m (209-2) did not qualify her for a final three attempts, the youngest woman in the field nevertheless finished in an impressive 12th place for the highest placement ever by a Cal freshman and a Second Team All-America award. Currently, she sits at fourth on Cal’s all-time list and is heir apparent to Purchase for the position of the Bears’ top hammer thrower.
 
Like Jacobs, freshman Carolina Visca earned Second Team All-American honors in the javelin with a 12th-place throw of 51.83m (170-0), becoming just the second Cal woman in history and first since 1982 to compete in the event at the NCAA Championships. The school and freshman record-holder will next turn her attention to the Italian Championships in July, with…