Cal Track & Field: Rowan Hamilton Wins NCAA Hammer Title

Hammer thrower Rowan Hamilton became Cal’s first NCAA track and field men’s champion in 13 years and the Bears’ 4x100-meter relay team eclipsed a 49-year-old school record on the first day of the collegiate nationals at Eugene, Oregon, on Wednesday.

Hamilton, the graduate transfer from the University of British Columbia, topped his own 2024 collegiate-leading and personal-best mark by two centimeters with a throw of 253 feet, 2 inches (77.18 meters).

He is the first Cal athlete to win a men’s individual title at the NCAA meet since Mike Morrison captured the decathlon in 2011. Cal hadn’t won the men’s hammer at the NCAAs since John Merchant in 1922 — 102 years ago.

Meanwhile, the foursome of Chase Williams, George Monroe, Mason Magnum and David Foster delivered a time of 38.90 seconds in the 4x100 relay, breaking the near half-century program standard of 39.11 established by the quartet of Howard Strickland, Sammy Burns, John Nichols and future NFL star wide receiver West Walker in 1975.

The current Bears team finished sixth in its heat, 13th overall, and will not advance to Friday’s final. But this group, which entered with a best of 39.28, was the first Cal 4x100 team to reach the NCAA meet since 1977.

Foster, a junior from Katy, Texas, later finished 13th in the 100-meter semifinals, with a clocking of 10.28 that was off his school-record time of 10.14.

Hamilton, a native of Chillicott, BC and a three-time NAIA national champ at UBC, needed his big third-round throw to overtake defending champion Kenneth Ikeji, a Harvard junior, who had just posted a mark of 253-0 (77.12). Ekeji finished second.

Hamilton’s winning mark measured the same as his previous best in feet and inches — 253-2 — but is a two-centimeter improvement from his former best of 77.16. He remains No. 8 on the all-time collegiate list and fell just short of attaining the Paris Olympic qualifying standard of 256-7 (78.20).

Cal senior Ivar Moisander, a native of Sweden, finished 13th in the hammer with a throw of 223-6 (68.13). He improved his position from 15th a year ago, 20th in 2022.

Skyler Magula finished in a tie for sixth place in the pole vault with a clearance of 18 feet, 1 1/4 inches 5.52m). The senior missed three attempts at a personal-best 18-5 1/4 (5.62m).

Senior Ivar Moisander, a native of Sweden, finished 13th in the hammer with a throw of 223-6 (68.13). He improved his position from 15th a year ago, 20th in 2022.

Senior Jeff Duensing, after fouls on his first two throws, wound up 13th in the shot put with a mark of 62-3 3/4 (18.99m).