Stunner: World-recordholder Mykolas Alekna 2nd at NCAA Meet

Cal’s Mykolas Alekna has twice set the world record in the discus, but his college career ended Friday without an NCAA championship.

The 22-year-old from Lithuania entered his final NCAA meet at Oregon’s Hayward Field with the 10 longest throws in college history. But he wound up second to Oklahoma’s Ralford Mullings in a stunning upset.

Alekna has competed at the NCAAs three times, dating back to his freshman season in 2022. But he has finished second, third and second in those three meets.

The first two were surprises. This was on a different level.

Alekna fouled on four of his six throws, firing the discus into the netting sheltering the ring on his final attempt. He left the infield with a best of 219 feet exactly (66.77 meters) — nearly 29 feet shy of his most recent world record of 247-11 (75.56).

Mullings exceeded the 33-year-old meet record three times and already had clinched the victory when he threw a personal-best 227-5 (69.31) on his final attempt. 

A year ago, Mullings finished ninth at the Olympics while representing Jamaica. Alekna was a silver medalist in Paris on the heels of winning silver and bronze medals at the World Championships the two previous years. He set his first world record in 2023, then improved on it this spring.

Even his 10th-best college throw — 229-2 (69.86) — would have won Friday’s competition. But Alekna never found any sort of rhythm.

He threw 218-0 (66.44) on his first attempt, then fouled three times in a row. In the meantime, Mullings took the lead with a third-round effort of 222-1 (67.70) to break meet record held since 1992 by Nevada’s Kami Keshmiri.

Alekna threw 219-0 in the fifth round but Mullings answered with a toss of 221-5 (67.48), adding to his lead. After Alekna misfired on his final try, Mullings cut loose with his personal best by eight inches.

Alekna has a year of collegiate eligibility remaining but already has graduated and said this spring his plan is to return home to Lithuania for the professional summer season, capped by the World Championships at Tokyo in August.

Earlier in the competition at Eugene, Cal’s Giavonna Meeks, a sophomore transfer from Vanderbilt, placed fifth in the women’s hammer throw with a personal-best mark of 226-2 (68.94). She improved her No. 4 all-time Cal mar of 222-8 (67.86).

Freshman Valentna Savva finished 10th in the hammer with a best of 219-3 (66.84) and sophomore teammate Audrey Jacobs was 18th at 209-1 (63.74).

 In the women’s shot put, sophomore Lucija Leko placed 22nd at 53-3 3/4 (16.25).

Two Cal runners who set program records in their events this season were sidelined during semifinal races on Wednesday.

Senior Garrett MacQuiddy was 10th in his heat with a time of 3 minutes, 53.49 seconds in the slower of two heats. He finished 22nd overall, well off his school-record time of 3:38.50,

Junior Johnny Goode ran seventh in his heat and 21st overall in the 400 meters, crossing in 46.39. His program record is 45.02 seconds.

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