Cal Track & Field: Mykolas Alekna Sets Program and NCAA Freshman Records in Discus

He takes down Cal's 30-year-old school record to win the Aztec Invitational.

Freshman Mykolas Alekna is redefining the men’s discus event at Cal. And the 19-year-old from Lithuania is only two meets into his freshman outdoor season.

On Saturday he erased a 30-year-old school record in the discus and established an NCAA freshman record with a throw of 66.70 meters (218 feet, 10 inches) at San Diego State’s 43rd annual Aztec Invitational.

Alekna crushed the program record of 64.28 meters (210-11), established by Ramon Jimenez-Gaona in 1990. Jimenez-Gaona represented his native Paraguay in three Olympic Games.

Here's what else his performance on Saturday achieved:

-- He has soared to No. 3 on the all-time NCAA list, trailing only SMU's Hannes Hopley, a South African who set the collegiate record of 67.66 (222-0) in 2004, and Penn's Sam Mattis, who threw 67.45 (221-4) in 2016.

-- Alekna's throw establishes a Lithuanian U23 record. 

Myoklas Alekna celebrates with Cal throws coach Mo Saatara / Photo by Derrick Tuskan

-- His mark also lifts him to No. 3 on the current world list. Sitting atop that chart is Daniel Stahl of Sweden (67.62), the reigning Olympic champion, followed by Slovakia’s Kristjan Ceh (67.27), who was fifth last year at the Tokyo Games.

-- Alekna's throw was farther than Stahl (66.12) uncorked to win the Olympic gold.

-- It’s early in the world-wide outdoor season, but Alekna’s throw would have ranked him 14th on the 2021 global list.

-- His mark ranks second all-time on the Pac-12 list, trailing only UCLA’s Julian Wruck, whose best was 68.16 (223-7) in 2013. That mark qualifies for inclusion on the Pac-12 lists but was outside collegiate competition and so is not recognized by the NCAA.

-- It also would have won every Pac-12 meet ever contested, and is 10 feet beyond what Arizona State’s Turner Washington threw to win the 2021 NCAA title.

Alekna threw a collegiate-leading 62.63 meters (205-6) in his Cal debut last week while winning the Cardinal Classic at Stanford. That mark placed him third on Cal’s all-time list after his first competition.

On Saturday he topped his own pre-college personal best of 63.52 (208-5) and had the three longest throws of the competition.

Alekna now owns both the meet and stadium records at San Diego State. He broke the meet record of 62.83 (206-1) set by Ian Waltz of High Performance TC in 2004, and eclipsed the facility record of 65.68 (215-6) set by Stefan Fernholm of BYU in 1984.

Alekna comes from a family of discus throwers, led by his father, Virgilijus Alekna, who ranks No. 2 on the all-time world list with a best of 73.88 (242-5).

Virgilijus Alekna competed in five Olympics, winning gold in 2000 at Sydney and 2004 at Athens, and participated in 10 World Championships, capturing two more titles on that stage.

Cal graduate student Iffy Joyner, who earned second-team All-America honors at the 2021 NCAA meet, finished second with a personal-best of 61.09 (200-5), climbing to No. 7 on the program’s all-time list.

Amelia Flynt set a Cal women's freshman record in the shot put with a toss of 16.53 meters (54-2.75) to finish third place. Her mark is second-best in school history, trailing only Olympian Kristin Heaston's 1999 toss of 16.58 (54-4.75)

Cal senior Josh Johnson won the men's shot by more than 7 feet with a best of 19.46 (63-10.25).

Senior Ezinnne Abba won the women's 100 meters in 11.31 seconds, just off her year-old school record of 11.30.

Cover photo of Mykolas Alekna by Kelley L. Cox, KLC fotos

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