Cal Poly Open
Cal Poly Track & Field Set for Home, Outdoor Opener
3/2/2023 9:18:00 AM | Track and Field
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — Mustang track and field kicks off its outdoor season at home Friday with the Cal Poly Open at the Miller & Capriotti Athletics Complex.
Field events start at 11 a.m. and action on the track begins at 2 p.m. Athletes from Cuesta College and Cal State Monterey Bay will compete alongside the Mustangs. Admission to the meet is free.
This marks the second straight year the Mustangs have opened the outdoor season at home. The team is fresh off an historic indoor campaign that saw men compete indoors for Cal Poly for the first time since the school fully transitioned to Division I during the 1994-95 school year, and the women break four school records and post 12 new top-five marks.
Jadyn Snaer (60-meter dash), Shelby Daniele (200-meter), Carissa Buchholz (5,000-meter) and Melody Nwagwu (long jump) all moved to No. 1 all-time in their respective events indoors.
Snaer flew past the previous school record of 7.68 seconds during her first indoor meet this season in Colorado and added to it two more times to finish the year with a 7.47. She will look to build off that performance during the outdoor season.
In addition to shattering a school record, Daniele moved into sole possession of No. 2 all-time in the 60-meter as the senior seeks a storybook ending to her Cal Poly career this spring. Snaer and Daniele will both be in action Friday in the 100-meter dash.
With a time of 16:23.14 in the 5,000 at the Husky Classic on Feb. 10, Buchholz broke the women's program record Amanda Olla established in the event at the UW Invitational two weeks prior. The time was also the fastest 5K ran by a Mustang woman indoors or outdoors since Katie Izzo in 2019.
That impressive performance by Buchholz was one of many for the distance program during the indoor season, with the most recent coming this past Sunday at the Boston University Last Chance Invite. The Mustangs ended the indoor campaign in historic fashion as Aidan McCarthy (3:59.42) and Xian Shively (3:59.74) ran the first two sub four-minute mile times in Cal Poly history.
Given how successful the indoor season was for the Mustangs, the team is eager to see what they can accomplish outdoors.
Sophomore Maya Holman leads the list of notable athletes that will compete for the Mustangs during Friday's Cal Poly Open. She is entered in four events — the javelin, shot put, 100 hurdles and 4x100 relay. As a true freshman last spring, Holman captured sixth in the heptathlon at the Big West Championships.
Nwagwu is one of 11 All-Conference returnees for the Mustangs this spring. On Friday, Nwagwu will compete in the long jump and triple jump, an event she placed third in at last year's Big West Championships.
A pair of defending Big West champions will be in action at the Cal Poly Open. Mathis Bresko will look to soar to new heights in the men's pole vault after a stellar 2022 campaign that saw him just miss out on earning a berth to the NCAA Championships. Melissa Navarro, the 2022 javelin conference champion, is set to take part in the women's javelin and shot put.
Freshman phenom Lexi Evans (pole vault), Corban Payne (discus, hammer, shot put), Devon Cetti (discus, hammer, shot put), Isabella Rigby (discus, shot put) and Cassidy Hubert (800-meter) are just some of the other standouts that will participate in Cal Poly's home opener.
Follow Cal Poly track and field on Twitter and Instagram for updates throughout the meet.
The Mustangs travel to the rival Gauchos next Wednesday through Friday for the UCSB Invite.
Players Mentioned
