FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Seven men from the California track & field team competed in the first of four days at the NCAA West Regionals Wednesday, going toe-to-toe with dozens of the nation’s best athletes at John McDonnell Field for the chance to qualify for the upcoming NCAA Outdoor Championships.
With redshirt junior decathlete Seth Johnson having already pre-qualified to appear on the national stage, a Golden Bear presence at Hayward Field (the site of the NCAA Outdoor Championships) was never in question. After Day 1 of competition in Fayetteville, the party bound for Eugene, Oregon, grew to two as sophomore Trevor Rogers clinched a spot among the region’s top-12 collegiate long jumpers advancing to the season finale.
Rogers, who is also a wide receiver for the Cal football team, became the program’s first male long jumper to advance to the NCAA Outdoor Championships in 11 years (Walt Jones IV, 2015) with a personal-best leap of 7.76m (25-5.5) to place eighth out of 47 competitors and rise to No. 10 in program history.
“I’m so impressed with this kid,” said Director of Track & Field/Cross Country Robyne Johnson, who directly coaches Cal’s horizontal jumps squad. “For him to step up at this level is huge, especially with him doing double duty with football. He was so focused on making it to Nationals and really excelled today – I’m so proud of him for stepping up and performing. He’s so competitive, and that’s the beautiful thing about him.”
Two more Bears came close to advancing to the next round of competition but fell just short. Redshirt junior Nik Iwankiw closed out his breakout season with a personal-best throw of 18.68m (61-3.5) in the shot put, finishing one place shy of a coveted top-12 spot by just one centimeter, while junior Justin Pretre ran the 1500m in 3:43.54 to finish one spot outside of an automatic-qualifying berth to Friday’s event quarterfinals.
Due to inclement weather, the men’s pole vault was rescheduled to Thursday with a start time of 12:40 p.m. PT/2:40 p.m. CT.
NCAA WEST REGIONALS – DAY 1 RESULTS
Men’s 1500m First Round – 26. Justin Pretre 3:43.54
Men’s Long Jump – 8. Trevor Rogers 7.76m/25-5.5 (q, PR, 10th Cal History); 27. Chukwunonso Udeh 7.38m/24-2.5; - Jason Plumb NM
Men’s Shot Put – 13. Nik Iwankiw 18.68m/61-3.5 (PR)
Men’s Hammer – 41. Miles Clark 57.88m/189-11; 42. Kai Barham 57.68m/189-3
