NCAA Outdoor Championships
McCarthy Eyes History Friday Night in Austin
6/8/2023 4:00:00 PM | Track and Field
AUSTIN, Texas — History will be made Friday night at Mike A. Myers Stadium in Austin when redshirt sophomore Aidan McCarthy takes the start line for the NCAA Finals in the men's 800-meter.
The race is scheduled to start at 7:14 p.m. PDT Friday and will be broadcast live on ESPN 2. A watch party is being held at Cal Poly's Swanson Beach Volleyball Complex starting at 6:45 p.m. to cheer on McCarthy during his race. The main broadcast of the meet will be shown on the video board at the facility and McCarthy will start in lane six in the nine-man final.
McCarthy secured his spot in the NCAA Finals by winning his heat in the men's 800 semifinals Wednesday night with a time of 1:47.60, the second fastest recorded across the three semifinal heats.
McCarthy took the lead with about 300 meters to go in the final heat and never looked back, becoming the first Cal Poly man to qualify for the NCAA Finals in an event on the track since Ben Bruce in 2005 (men's 3,000 steeplechase), and the first overall since Peyton Bilo in 2017 (women's 10,000).
"The plan was to sit just sit behind the leaders for as long as you can until you start to slow down and then make your move and don't look back," McCarthy said in an interview after the 800 semifinals. "I definitely took the lead a little earlier than I wanted to, but I felt like in the moment it was the right move for me, and it ended up paying off."
When the Pleasanton, Calif. native crossed the finish line and punched his ticket to the finals, he took a moment to soak it all in.
"It's pretty surreal," he said about advancing to the NCAA Finals. "… It's definitely validation that I can run with the best in the country and definitely gives me some confidence going into Friday."
By qualifying for the NCAA Finals, McCarthy locked up at least Second Team All-American honors, becoming the first athlete in Division I program history to earn All-American status in the men's 800.
If McCarthy finishes in the top eight in the 800 Friday, he would become Cal Poly's first First Team All-American on the men's side since 2007 and the program's first overall since 2011.
The two-time Big West champion will also be seeking the program's 11th Division I outdoor national title, and the sixth on the men's side. In the history of the program, only three athletes on the men's side have claimed Division I outdoor national championships — Mohinder Gill (1970, 1971) and Reynaldo Brown (1971, 1973) and Tom Pagani (1961).
Players Mentioned
