Johnny Goode, Mykolas Alekna, & Lucija Leko Shine at ACC Track

Cal sophomore Lucija Leko of Croatia and senior Caisa-Marie Lindfors of Sweden finished second and third in the women’s shot put, both eclipsing Olympian Kristin Heaston’s 26-year-old school record.

Leko’s best throw measured 55 feet, 1 1/2 inches (16.80 meters), taking down the Cal standard of 54-4 3/4 set by Heaston in 1999. Lindfors also topped the previous record with a toss of 54-8 1/4 (16.67).

Cal’s men finished third with 79.83 points — matching their finish last year at the Pac-12 meet — and behind champion Duke (86 points) and runner-up North Carolina (82). The Bears’ women wound up sixth with 61 points.  Virginia won the women’s title with 93 points.

Alekna, silver medalist at the Paris Olympics last summer, added an ACC title to the Pac-12 crowns he won in 2022 and ’23 before skipping the college season last spring to prepare for the Games.

The 22-year-old Lithuanian, who broke his own world record in the discus with a mark of 247-11 (75.56m) last month, threw 229-2 (69.86m) on his second attempt to win the competition by a margin of 30 feet. That erased the ACC meet record of 217-2 (66.21), set three years ago by Virginia’s Claudio Romero. 

Two other Golden Bears scored in the event as Cal’s throwers excelled all weekend. Junior Jared Freeman finished fourth with a mark of 174-6 (53.19) and senior Charlie Dang was fifth with a season-best mark of 173-4 (52.85).

Meeks, a sophomore transfer from Vanderbilt, won the women’s hammer with a lifetime-best throw of 222-8 (67.86), which improves her own No. 4 mark on Cal’s all-time list. She finished just seven inches of the ACC meet record while adding the hammer title to the ACC indoor weight throw crown she captured earlier this year.

Freshman Valentina Savva of Cyprus was second in the hammer at 221-10 (67.63), sophomore Audrey Jacobs was fifth with season-best of 210-6 (64.16) and sophomore Adrianna Coleman placed siixth with personal best of 202-6 (61.72), good for ninth all-time at Cal.

In the men’s hammer, Freeman was third at 218-3 (66.52).

Senior Garrett MacQuiddy ran a great race to finish second in the men’s 1,500. Cal’s school-record holder in the event, he was seventh in a tight, tactical field at the bell lap before running 52.02 for the final 400 meters to pass five runners and finish second at 3:45.25. North Carolina’s Ethan Strand, the ACC meet record-holder, won in 3:44.78.

Freshman Trevor Rogers placed second in the long jump at 25-1 3/4 (7.66), a personal best by more than 9 inches, and just one inch shy of winning.

Senior Riley Knott was fourth in the long jump at 24-5 (7.44), a personal best by 11 inches, and returned to finish fourth in the high jump with a season-best clearance of 6-10 1/4 (2.09).

Other top Cal performers included sophomore Nicholas Godbehere (third in the men’s shot at 59-9/18.21), senior Asjah Atkinson (fourth in the women’s 100 hurdles at 13.45), sophomore Donovan Bradley (fourth in the men’s 110 hurdles at 13.85 after running 13.59 in the prelims), junior Tyler Burns (third in the pole vault at 17-5) and junior Loreal Wilson (sixth in the women’s 400 hurdles at 58.51). 

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