USATF U20 Cross Country Championships
Daillak Qualifies for U20 World XC Championships; Caudillo Shatters School Record
12/7/2025 2:13:00 PM | Cross Country, Track and Field
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — The Cal Poly track & field and cross country program had quite the day on Saturday as two historic milestones were achieved by a pair of men’s distance runners.
First, true freshman Tyler Daillak captured second at the USATF U20 Cross Country Championships in Portland to secure a spot on Team USA for the U20 World Championships. Then on the other side of the country in Boston, Chris Caudillo obliterated the school record in the men’s indoor 5,000-meter in the first action of the indoor season for the Mustangs.
Daillak, a Paso Robles, Calif. native, shined at the Glendoveer Golf Course in Portland on Saturday, finishing second in the men’s U20 Championship race with a time of 25:13.8 while competing against some of the best U20 collegiate distance runners in the country. Daillak led the race for about 2K, finishing just three seconds behind Texas’ Aidan Torres, who took first.
With the silver medal finish, Daillak qualified for the World Athletics U20 Cross Country Championships and will represent Team USA at the meet on Saturday, Jan. 10 in Tallahassee, Florida. In his first cross country season as a Mustang this fall, Daillak redshirted and competed in a pair of meets while running unattached, finishing fifth in the Bronco Invitational and seventh in the season-opening Gaucho Twilight.
Fellow freshman J.R. Lesher also competed in the USATF U20 Championships on Saturday, finishing 29th (27:12.4).
At the Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener on Saturday, Caudillo put on an incredible performance on the blistering surface at the Boston University Track & Tennis Center. In section 3 of the men’s indoor 5,000-meter, Caudillo ran an all-around lifetime best of 13:35.05, shattering the indoor school record in the event by over 23 seconds (13:58.92, 2023) and winning his section in the process.
Caudillo’s time surpassed his previous outdoor PR in the event of 13:44.89 — which ranks No. 2 all-time on Cal Poly’s outdoor top marks list — and is also faster than the current men’s outdoor 5,000 school record of 13:40.90. With his performance, Caudillo finished 14th overall in the men’s 5,000 in a highly competitive field that featured some of the best collegiate and professional runners in the country.
Caudillo, a Clovis, Calif. native, redshirted this cross country season and is a two-time NCAA West Preliminaries qualifier in the men’s 1,500. In addition to his top marks indoors and outdoors in the 5,000, Caudillo owns the second-fastest 1,500 time (3:35.65) in school history.
Caudillo’s showing in Boston was the first official action of the indoor season for the Mustangs. The rest of the team opens its indoor season on Jan. 16-17 at the UW Preview in Seattle.
