Mykolas Alekna Leads Powerhouse Showing by Cal Throwers

Cal won 12 events, dominated the throws and got a 2025 world-leading performance from discus world-recordholder Mykolas Alekna at the Brutus Hamilton Invitational at Edwards Stadium on Saturday.

Alekna prevailed with a throw of 229 feet, 11 inches (70.09 meters), which is well off his year-old world record of 243-11 (74.35) set while competing outside the college arena. But it was good enough to establish an Atlantic Coast Conference record in his first meet since last summer.

Alekna, a redshirt junior who owns the collegiate record of 232-11 (71.00), now has the top four marks in college history and eight of the top 10. Teammates Jared Freeman, Charlie Dang and Nicholas Godbehere secured the second, third and fourth spots.

The Bears swept the top four spots in the women’s hammer throw, with a pair of newcomers to the program recording the Nos. 3 and 4 all-time marks at Cal.

Freshman Valentina Savva from Cyprus won with a personal-best throw of 225-6 (68.73), putting herself third on the Bears’ all-time list, breaking her country's U23 record and the Cal freshman record held by reigning Olympic champion Camryn Rogers. Giovanni Meeks, a sophomore transfer from Vanderbilt, was second with a personal best of 219-7 (66.93), which is No. 4 in Cal annals.

Audrey Jacobs, a junior from the Netherlands, placed third at 210-4 (64.13), just under her best, and sophomore Adrianna Coleman fourth at 193-3 (58.93).

Lucija Leko, a sophomore and first-year Golden Bear from Croatia, captured the women’s shot put with a college personal best of 53-1 1/4 (16.44), which puts her No. 3 all-time at Cal.

Redshirt sophomore Godbehere won the men’s shot at 58-1 3/4 (17.72). Dang took the men’s javelin with a personal-best heave of 208-6 (63.55) the resides at No. 10 on Cal’s all-time chart.

In the men’s hammer, Freeman, a redshirt senior transfer from UC Santa Barbara, threw a personal best of 219-6 (66.90 meters) to finish second and move to No. 7 all-time at Cal.

The event’s winner was former Cal athlete Kegan Schroeter, who threw a lifetime best of 232-1 (70.75m). Schroeter ranks No. 2 on Cal’s career list with a 2023 collegiate mark of 230-4 that was the program record until Canadian Olympian Rowan Hamilton shattered it last season with a toss of 253-2 (77.16).

Sophomore Johnny Goode won the 400 meters with a time of 45.82, eclipsing his previous outdoor best by 0.04 seconds to remain No. 4 on Cal’s all-time list.

Sophomore Myla Canty won the women’s triple jump with a mark of 43-1 (13.13) that ranks No. 9 all-time at Cal. Senior Asjah Atkinson won the women’s 100 hurdles with a personal-best time of 13.25 that moves her from No. 5 to No. 4 on the Bears’ all-time chart.

Other Cal winners: junior Ali Sahaida in the women’s pole vault at 13-11 1/4 (4.25), redshirt junior Tyler Burns in the men’s vault at 16-11 1/2 (5.17m), freshman Zoe Lahanas in the women’s 800 at 2:09.55 and senior Garrett MacQuiddy in the men’s 800 at 1:50.11.

Senior Riley Knott placed second in the decathlon, ending Friday, with a 10-event personal-best score of 6,931 points. He recorded lifetime bests in the 100, long jump, 400, discus and 1,500.

At the Stanford Invitational on Friday, MacQuiddy ran a lifetime best of 3:40.52 to finish second in the 1,500 and move from No. 5 to No. 4 on Cal’s all-time list. He ran his final 400 in 55.38 seconds to scramble back from eighth place to missing victory by just a tenth of a second.

Also at Stanford, junior Jason Plumb won the men’s long jump with a leap of 25-3 1/4 (7.70) for the second-best mark of his career.

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