Cal Track & Field: Mykolas Alekna, Anna Purchase Take Aim at NCAA Titles

The Bears will send a program-record 17 athletes to the national meet at Austin, Texas.

Cal will be represented by a program-record 17 athletes at the NCAA Track and Field Championships this week at Austin, Texas, and two of them — discus thrower Mykolas Alekna and hammer thrower Anna Purchase — are favored to win.

The meet runs Wednesday through Saturday at the University of Texas.

Alekna, the 2023 world leader, has lost just once in two seasons as a college thrower, but that came at last year’s NCAA meet . . . by one inch. The men’s discus will be contested Friday evening.

Here’s what Stan Becton wrote on NCAA.com while making his event-by-event predictions:

Cal's Mykolas Alekna is the collegiate record holder in the discus and has his name all across the top 10 all-time marks. But he doesn't have an NCAA title after finishing in second last year. Alekna won't fall short this go-around.

Alekna’s collegiate record is 232 feet, 11 inches or 71.00 meters, which is No. 18 on the all-time world list. The 20-year-old sophomore from Lithuania owns the top five all-time college marks and 11 of the 12 longest throws by a college athlete.

Mykolas Alekna / Photo by Jed Jacobsohn

He fell just short at the NCAAs a year ago, when Virginia’s Claudio Romero delivered a winning throw of 217-1 (66.17) while Alekna checked in at 217-0 (66.15). Romero has since transferred to LSU and he is just the No. 7 qualifier this week at 196-10 (60.01).

Alekna’s chief threat may be Arkansas senior Roje Stona, native of Jamaica and transfer from Clemson, who owns the No. 2 mark in the NCAA at 225-3 (68.64). Also in the mix is Arizona State’s Turner Washington, the 2021 collegiate champ with a season-best of 213-2 (64.98).

Cal senior Anna Purchase is favored by both Track and Field News and the NCAA's Becton to win the women’s hammer throw. She had the longest collegiate throw of the year much of the season, but the top mark in the field now belongs to Harvard’s Stephanie Ratcliffe.

Ratcliffe is No. 1 with a mark of 239-10 (73.11), which broke the Ivy League and Australian national records. Purchase, a senior from Great Britain, has thrown 239-7 (73.02). The two rank Nos. 5 and 6 on the all-time college list, trailing former Cal star Camryn Rogers, the three-time defending NCAA champ who has the 12 longest throws in college history.

The NCAA’s Becton gives the edge to Purchase:

Cal's Anna Purchase will keep the hammer trophy with the Bears this year as the top woman in the event. While she could see competition with Harvard's Stephanie Ratcliffe — the only other woman with a throw over 73 meters this year — I think Purchase's previous championship experience will benefit her in Austin.

Cal's 4x100 relay team of Jada Hicks, Jordyn Grady, Aysha Shaheed and Makhaila Mills / Photo by Jimmy Su

The Bears’ other entries: Garrett MacQuiddy (men’s 1,500), Skyler Magula (men’s pole vault), Jeff Duensing (men’s hot put), Ivar Moisander (men’s hammer throw), Hakim McMorris (decathlon), Jada Hicks (women’s 100 hurdles/4x100 relay), 4x100 relay (Hicks, Jordyn Grady, Makhaila Mills and Aysha Shaheed, with alternate Ryan Lacefield), Amari Turner (women’s pole vault), Ijeoma Uche (women’s long jump), Asha Fletcher (women’s triple jump) and Carolina Visca (women’s javelin).

NCAA

.

Cover photo of Anna Purchase by Don Gosney

Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo