SAN MARCOS, Calif. – The Cal State San Marcos men's and women's track & field teams will head to Stanislaus State for the 2024 CCAA Track & Field Championships taking place Thursday through Saturday at Al Brenda Track at Warrior Stadium in Turlock.
 
LAST MEET

• CSUSM had its final tune-up before the CCAA Championships at UC Irvine's Steve Scott Invitational this past weekend.
• Mateo Gomez broke the school record in the long jump at 6.93 meters, beating out Michael Anastasia's 2013 record of 6.91 meters. As a result, Gomez was named the CCAA Men's Field Athlete of the Week.
• Dre Johnson posted a 100-meter time of 10.69, tying for the second-fastest mark in program history.
• Sankalp Shastri took third out of 37 entrants in the one-mile invitational at 4:09.78 – the fourth-fastest time in program history. Ziggy Nacco posted the 10th-fastest time in team history at 4:19.54.
• On the women's side, Rasha Badrani recorded an NCAA provisional time of 1:00.84 in the 400-meter hurdles, slimming down her season-best time by .29 seconds.
• Rachelle Zilavec broke the program record for the javelin throw with a distance of 41.30 meters, breaking Kelly Skvarna's 2014 record of 40.15 meters. For her efforts, Zilavec was named the CCAA Women's Field Athlete of the Week.
• Carly Schuerger broke the school record in the one-mile invitational at 5:03.42 – 5.13 seconds faster than Ana Mercado's 2022 time of 5:08.55. Emma Mills, Maria Texis and Angela McManus posted the program's third-, fourth- and fifth-fastest times for the event at 5:10.61, 5:13.89 and 5:18.87, respectively.
• The 4x100-meter team of Badrani, Orchid Concha, Isabel Ortiz and Devin Yarbrough posted the sixth-fastest time in program history at 47.37.

 
CCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS

• This will be the 81st running of the CCAA Track & Field Championships since beginning in 1939. The meet did not occur 1943-45 due to World War II and 2020-21 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• A total of 38 individual champions and four relay teams will be crowned along with two team champions over the course of three days.
• For the second consecutive year, both of CSUSM's men's and women's teams placed third at the 2023 championships while Cal Poly Pomona won both team titles for the second straight year.
• On the men's side, the Cougars earned three individual championships in 2023 with Nick Melansese winning both the 800- and 1500-meter runs while Kalathan Laiwa-McKay won the shot put title. Melanese and Laiwa-McKay both have the top marks in the CCAA this season in the 800 and shot put while Melanese ranks second in the 1500.
• On the women's side in 2023, Morgann Wilson was the heptathlon champion while Devin Yarbrough took home the long jump title for the second consecutive year. Wilson and Yarbrough rank second in the CCAA in both events this season
• With the men's and women's teams combine, CSUSM has 14 performances this season that rank in the top 3 of the CCAA across all events.

THE OLSON FILE

• Head coach Torrey Olson begins his sixth season at the helm of the men's and women's track & field programs after taking over in the summer of 2018.
• In 2019, Olson's men's and women's squads tallied three individual CCAA Championships for outdoor competition while the men's team earned five USTFCCCA All-West Region selections.
• In 2022, Olson guided both teams to a combined three individual CCAA Championships, 13 All-CCAA selections and five outdoor and three indoor USTFCCCA All-West Region honors.
• In 2023, the Cougars earned a combined five individual CCAA Championships, 19 All-CCAA selections, six outdoor and three indoor USTFCCCA All-West Region honorees under Olson's leadership.
• Olson came to CSUSM after spending three seasons as the Director of Track & Field and Cross Country at the Academy of Art University where his teams earned 50-plus All-American honors.
• Olson served as the head cross country coach for the previous three years at Academy of Art.
• In addition to the Academy of Art, Olson has also worked with the University of San Francisco and Pomona-Pitzer College.
• A graduate of Pomona College in 2009, Olson also holds an MFA from St. Mary's College (2012).