Honoring Mark: Cal Poly Hosts Conover Classic Friday, Saturday

Friday, March 24

San Luis Obispo, CA

All Day

Conover Classic

Mark Conover Horizontal, 2011 Cal Poly Invitational

Cal Poly is set to host the inaugural Conover Classic, named in honor of the late Mark Conover (pictured here at the 2011 Cal Poly Invitational) who passed away last April after a courageous battle with cancer.

Photo by: RAPHOTOS.COM

Honoring Mark: Cal Poly Hosts Conover Classic Friday, Saturday

3/23/2023 9:00:00 AM | Track and Field

HEAT SHEETS
LIVE RESULTS
MEET SCHEDULE

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — The Cal Poly track and field team is back at the Miller & Capriotti Athletics Complex this Friday and Saturday to host the inaugural Conover Classic.

The two-day meet gets underway at 10:30 a.m. Friday with the men's hammer throw. On Friday night starting at 6 p.m., a distance carnival will be held under the lights at the Miller & Capriotti Athletics Complex, showcasing events from the 200 to the 5,000-meter. Action on the final day of the meet begins at 10:30 a.m. Saturday with the men's discus and women's shot put. Running events Saturday start at 1:30 p.m.

The inaugural Conover Classic is named in honor of the late Mark Conover, who passed away last April after a courageous battle with an aggressive form of skin cancer. Mark served as Cal Poly's Director of Track & Field and Cross Country for more than 13 years and a coach for the Mustangs for 25 seasons overall.

Mark was a 21-time Big West Coach of the Year and a three-time USTFCCCA West Region Coach of the Year recipient, who mentored 14 All-Americans and 71 Big West champions across track and cross country. He coached a total of 22 conference championship winning-teams during his career at Cal Poly, including leading the Mustang women's track team to their first Big West title in 2021.

Naming this meet in Mark's honor is a way of paying tribute to his legacy and impact on the Cal Poly track & field and cross country programs. Mark was the true embodiment of the phrase "a Mustang is never conquered."

"It's an amazing thing and we're very honored that Cal Poly and coach Ryan Vanhoy are doing this," Kelly Conover, Mark's wife, said. "It means the world to us."

Kelly will attend the meet, along with Kelly and Mark's three triplets, Audrey, Marley and Cordell. When Kelly shows up to the track she expects to feel a rush of emotions, but she said watching events like the distance carnival will be the perfect way to remember Mark.

"It will be our first time at a [Cal Poly] track meet that Mark wasn't the coach," she said. "That was his happy place and that's where the kids grew up seeing him running around, cheering, setting up hurdles and filling the water pit for steeplechase. The kids have a lot of memories of dad being there."

The Conover Classic will also serve as alumni weekend for the track and field program. Kelly said Mark loved this weekend in particular, seeing and interacting with all his friends and past student-athletes at a place that meant so much to him.

"He was a Mustang through and through, and there was nothing else he would have rather done," Kelly said about Mark. "He was very fortunate that he got to live his passion, not a lot of people get to do that. His work was his passion and he enjoyed every day of work."

When Kelly first learned they would be naming a meet in Mark's honor, she felt so much gratitude. She said Mark poured his heart, sweat and tears into coaching and touched the lives of countless student-athletes, and it's special for her and the kids to see Cal Poly celebrating that.

"Mark would be so humbled by this," Kelly said. "He was never someone that wanted the attention to be on him, he wanted it to be on the athletes always … but I think he would be honored."

"It's going to be a great way to continue to heal from the loss of Mark," she added. "We're always going to be Mustangs and willing to help the program in any way that they want us to."

During the Conover Classic, Cal Poly will encounter athletes from CSU Bakersfield, Fresno Pacific, Santa Clara, Stanislaus State and a handful of junior colleges throughout California.

Melody Nwagwu, triple jump, Cal Poly Open, 03-03-23 — Melody Nwagwu competes in the triple
jump at the Cal Poly Open on March 3.

The Mustangs are fresh off an impressive showing at the Bulldog Classic in Clovis where Cal Poly took home 15 event victories and Shelby Daniele ran the fifth-fastest women's 200-meter time in school history (24.06 seconds).

The team opened the outdoor season three weeks ago in style, capturing 26 event victories at the Cal Poly Open. Six Mustangs also recorded top-10 marks in school history at the meet — Daniele (100), Jadyn Snaer (100), Lexi Evans (pole vault), Annie Hatzenbeler (pole vault), Amaya Lopez-Fuller (discus) and Corban Payne (hammer).

Currently, Cal Poly owns the top mark in the conference in five events. Snaer and Daniele sit atop the Big West in the women's 100 and 200 respectively, while Lopez-Fuller is No. 1 in the women's discus (162 feet, 11 inches).

Mathis Bresko paces the Big West in the men's pole vault. He cleared 17 feet, 0.75 inches at the Cal Poly Open, tied for the fifth-best mark in the West Region and the seventh best in the nation this season.

The Mustangs are also No. 1 in the conference in the women's 4x100 with Anisa Rind, Daniele, Melody Nwagwu and Snaer posting a time of 45.45 at the Bulldog Classic, 0.31 seconds off the school record in the event.

Following the Conover Classic, Cal Poly will split the team between three meets next week — the Mike Fanelli Track Classic (March 30-April 1), Stanford Invitational (March 31-April 1) and West Coast Relays (March 31).