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Cal Women’s Basketball is not the only Golden Bear squad competing in the postseason this month!

The NCAA championships winter season started this past weekend with the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships. Over the next month, several other Cal squads will be vying for NCAA titles: Cal Women’s Swimming and Diving will compete this week (March 19-22), Cal Men’s Swimming and Diving will compete next week (March 26-29), then the calendar flips to Cal Women’s (April 2-6 Regional and April 17-19 Finals) and Men’s (April 3-6 Regional and April 18-19 Finals) Gymnastics’ turns. While not sponsored by the NCAA, the D1A Collegiate Rugby 15s playoffs, almost surely featuring Cal (now an independent so the playoff berth is technically not yet confirmed), will begin in early April.

It’s a busy but exciting time!

Four Cal Bears (1 woman and 3 men) traveled to Virginia Beach, Virginia this past weekend for the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships. The lone woman was weight thrower Giavonna Meeks. The three men were sprinter David Foster, pole vaulter Tyler Burns, and heptathlon athlete Seth Johnson. Qualification for the NCAA Championships was based on their season-best performance being ranked in the top-16 nationally. Meeks and Foster demonstrated ability under pressure by winning their respective ACC titles at the ACC Indoor Championships in Louisville, Kentucky on March 1-3.

Photo Credit: CalBears.com

Continuing the new tradition of great female weight throwers at Cal, Giavonna Meeks is a redshirt sophomore who transferred to Cal from Vanderbilt. She placed 6th at the 2024 NCAA Indoor in weight throw. In 2025, she earned the ACC title with a season-best throw of 23.59m/77-4.75. Last Friday, Meeks’ top throw of 23.00m/75-5.5 broke the facility record and earned her a 4th place finish, good for a 1st-team All-American honor.

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The three Cal men earned 2nd-team All-American honors for placing between 9th and 16th.

Senior David Foster earned his 4th career Second-Team All-American honor when he placed 15th with a 6.62 in 60m prelim. Foster ran a 6.56 in Louisville to win the ACC title. Foster became the first Cal man in program history to compete in the 60m championship in 2024. By returning to the 2025 NCAA Indoor Championship, Foster joins Ashtyn Davis (more famous for his Cal Football exploits and recently signed with the Miami Dolphins but also a great hurdler) as the only Cal men’s sprinters to make repeat appearances.

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Redshirt junior Tyler Burns made his NCAA Championships debut on Friday. The pole vaulter was seeded 6th after earning an ACC bronze with a mark of 5.49m (18-0) and the Cal program record of 5.62m (18-5.25) at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Invitational in January. His father Brent Burns had Cal’s best finish in this event back in 1992 when he placed 4th overall. Tyler Burns cleared 5.46 (17-11) to finish 12th.

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Competing on both Friday and Saturday, redshirt sophomore Seth Johnson earned 5441 points to place 15th overall in the heptathlon. He finished 6th in 60m, 14th in long jump, 14th in shot put, 10th in high jump, 6th in 60m hurdles, 15th in pole vault, and 5th in 1000m. Johnson had placed 5th at the ACC Indoor Championships with a score of 5505 points. His career-best was 5800 points back in February which earned him the 12th seed.

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With four All-Americans at the NCAA Indoor Championships, Cal collected the most since 2018. The outdoor track and field season had already started two weekends ago. Golden Bears will next compete at the Hornet Invitational in Sacramento on March 21-22.