UW Preview
6 School Records Fall as Cal Poly Track & Field Opens Indoor Season with Strong Showing
1/19/2025 11:00:00 AM | Track and Field
SEATTLE, Wash. — In its indoor season opener, the Cal Poly track and field team showed out at University of Washington’s Dempsey Indoor on Friday and Saturday, rewriting the history books. A total of six school records were broken and 19 top-five marks in program history were recorded as the Mustangs competed in the UW Indoor Preview and UW Mile City.
Twenty-nine of the 30 Mustangs that made the trip to Seattle participated in the UW Indoor Preview on Friday, while sophomore Sydney Sundgren and freshman Melisse Djomby Enyawe were the only ones that competed in the UW Mile City on Saturday.
The remarkable showing by the Mustangs saw graduate student Chase Walter (men’s 600-meter), redshirt senior Aidan McCarthy (men’s 1,000-meter) and senior Anna Grexton (women’s weight throw) all obliterate program records, and senior Spencer Pickren (men’s 3,000-meter) and juniors Rory Devaney (men’s weight throw) and MacGregor TeSelle (men’s 60-meter) all shatter their own school records.
Devaney got things started for the Mustangs in Seattle on Friday by winning the men’s weight throw with a lifetime best toss of 69 feet, 7 inches (21.21 meters), surpassing his previous record from a year ago by over 6 feet. Currently, the mark ranks 23rd in the country this indoor season. Travis Martin took fourth in the event with a personal best of 59 feet, 7.5 inches (18.17 meters), moving him to No. 2 in school history.
On the track, the Cal Poly men tore it up and made plenty of noise. Running the 600-meter for the first time ever, Walter looked like a veteran, pulling away from Washington’s Ambodai Ligons in the final 50 meters to capture first in the event with a time of 1:16.14, breaking the Dempsey Indoor facility record and the Mustangs’ school record. Walter, who placed third in the 400 at the 2024 Big West Championship, surpassed the previous school record established last year by over four seconds. So far, Walter’s time is the fastest ran in the world in 2025.
In his first meet as a Mustang, freshman Jeffrey Overgaard finished fourth in the 600 with a time of 1:19.36, surpassing the previous school record and putting him at No. 2 on the all-time list. Redshirt freshman Wil Brennan took sixth in the event with a time of 1:22.06 in his first collegiate race.
McCarthy stepped on the track for the men’s 1,000 less than an hour after Walter’s performance and put on a show of his own. McCarthy cruised to a win in the event, crossing the finish line over a second in front of Stanford’s Zane Bergen with a time of 2:19.68 to surpass Davis Bove’s 2024 school record by over a second. For McCarthy, the race was his first on the track since opening the 2023-24 indoor season by running the fastest mile time in school history (3:56.09) in Boston on Dec. 2, 2023. The indoor 1,000 time by the 2023 First Team All-American in the 800 currently is the third fastest ran by a collegiate runner in 2025.
Lewis Westwood placed fourth in the 1,000 with the third-fastest time in school history (2:22.12) and sophomore Mateo Malko-Allen finished sixth.
Pickren capped off a strong day for the men’s distance program Friday by posting a sub 8-minute time in the 3,000-meter (7:57.05), breaking his own school record he set last year by over five seconds. He finished ninth out of nearly 80 runners and his time ranks 30th in Division I this season.
TeSelle, third in the 200 at the 2024 Big West Championship, crushed his own school record in the men’s 60-meter dash by over a tenth of a second in the final, running a time of 6.74 seconds to secure a second-place finish. Senior Noah Bustos ran a PR in the event of 6.96 seconds in prelims to improve his No. 3 mark in school history and also took seventh in the long jump.
The Cal Poly men’s 4x400-meter relay continued its dominance at Dempsey Indoor. Walter, TeSelle, Brennan and sophomore Alexander Franco led the Mustangs to a victory in the event to help Cal Poly remain undefeated in its last three meets running the men’s 4x400 at Dempsey Indoor. The time of 3:13.05 is the second fastest in school history, just .13 seconds off the 2023 indoor school record. Franco also ran the third-fastest indoor 200 time in school history (22.17) to place ninth.
Highlighted by Grexton’s school-record breaking performance, the Cal Poly women had a number of standout performances. In her first track meet since competing in the 2024 UW Indoor Preview, Grexton recorded an over 7-feet personal best in the weight throw (55 feet, 16.76 meters) to shatter Emily Hallett’s 2022 school record and place third overall at the meet.
Junior Desie Armstrong, a transfer from Diablo Valley College, impressed in her first meet as a Mustang. In the 60-meter final, Armstrong posted the second fastest time in school history with a time of 7.49, just .02 seconds off the school record. She finished fourth in the event and sixth in the long jump.
Speaking of debuts, freshman Madison Easter recorded not one, but two top-five marks in program history in the first meet of her career. She ran the fourth-fastest indoor 200-meter time (24.97 seconds) to capture second and posted the fifth-fastest 60 time in school history in prelims, finishing eighth in the final.
In her first meet running the 600-meter, sophomore Elianah DeMange ran the second-fastest time in school history (1:32.51) to secure a seventh-place finish. Sophomore Kalia Estes recorded a personal best of 8.86 seconds in prelims of the women’s 60-meter hurdles, the fifth-fastest time in school history. She went on to capture sixth in the final.
Senior Cadence Roy-Williams secured third in the long jump (18 feet, 5.75 inches) and sophomore Kelli Gaffney posted a nearly 39-second personal best in the women’s 3,000-meter (9:43.43).
Cal Poly heads back to Seattle and Dempsey Indoor on Jan. 31-Feb. 1 to take part in the UW Invitational.
Cal Poly Results
Women
60-meter: 4, Desie Armstrong, 7.49. 8, Madison Easter, 7.70. 12, Ciella Seals, 7.75 (prelims). 17, Cadence Roy Williams, 7.82 (prelims). 21, Ava Fortier, 7.88 (prelims).
200-meter: 2, Madison Easter, 24.97. 7, Jordan Jackson, 25.39. 12, Ciella Seals, 25.67. 24, Ava Fortier, 26.36.
600-meter: 7, Elianah DeMange, 1:32.51.
Mile: 43, Sydney Sundgren, 4:56.16. 52, Melisse Djomby Enyawe, 5:04.32.
3,000-meter: 27, Kelli Gaffney, 9:43.43. 39, Ashlyn Leath, 9:57.82. 41, Sydney Sundgren, 9:58.71.
60-meter hurdles: 6, Kalia Estes, 8.86.
Long jump: 3, Cadence Roy-Williams, 18-5.75. 6, Desie Armstrong, 18-4.5.
Shot put: 10, Taylor Hofland, 41-1.5.
Weight throw: 3, Anna Grexton, 55-0. 11, Brooklyn Epperley, 44-9.5.
Men
60-meter: 2, MacGregor TeSelle, 6.74. 15, Noah Bustos, 6.96 (prelims).
200-meter: 9, Alexander Franco, 22.17.
600-meter: 1, Chase Walter, 1:16.14. 4, Jeffrey Overgaard, 1:19.36. 6, Wil Brennan, 1:22.06.
1,000-meter: 1, Aidan McCarthy, 2:19.68. 4, Lewis Westwood, 2:22.12. 6, Mateo Malko-Allen, 2:27.73. 11, Taj Clark, 2:32.61.
3,000-meter: 9, Spencer Pickren, 7:57.05.
4x400-meter relay: 1, Cal Poly, (Chase Walter, MacGregor TeSelle, Wil Brennan, Alexander Franco), 3:13.05.
Long jump: 7, Noah Bustos, 22-5.25.
Shot put: 12, Corban Payne, 41-8.
Weight throw: 1, Rory Devaney, 69-7. 4, Travis Martin, 59-7.5.
