NCAA Indoor Championships
McCarthy Races in 800 Semifinals at NCAA Indoor Championships Friday
3/13/2025 11:30:00 AM | Track and Field
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — Aidan McCarthy will be eyeing an opportunity to compete for a national title when he races in the semifinals of the men’s 800-meter at the NCAA Indoor Championships on Friday inside the Virginia Beach Sports Center.
The semifinals of the men’s 800 are scheduled to start at 4:50 p.m. PDT on Friday in Virginia Beach with a livestream of the event available on ESPN+. The 16 qualifiers for the event will be split into two heats, with the top three finishers from each heat along with the next two fastest times between both heats advancing to the NCAA 800 final at 3:30 p.m. PDT on Saturday. McCarthy will race in heat two Friday.
Follow Cal Poly track and field on Instagram (@calpolytfxc) and Twitter/X (@CalPolyTrack_XC) for live updates throughout the meet.
McCarthy enters the meet with the top time ran in the nation this season after laying down one of the most impressive performances in NCAA history in the men’s indoor 800 in his last time on the track. At the Last Chance National Qualifier hosted by Boston University on March 2, the Pleasanton, Calif. native ran the fastest indoor 800 time by an American in collegiate history, posting an over one second all-conditions (indoor or outdoor) personal best of 1:45.19. It was the third fastest indoor 800 time by a collegian ever, only trailing Kenyans Paul Ereng (1989) and Michael Saruni (2018).
McCarthy’s time surpassed the BU facility record as well, bettering Georgetown’s Tinoda Matsatsa previous record of 1:45.21 which he set just two weeks ago at the David Hemery Valentine Invitational. Matsatsa, a sophomore who won the 2023 USATF U20 800 national title, is seeded second in the event entering the NCAA Indoor Championships.
McCarthy is Cal Poly’s first NCAA Division I indoor national qualifier since two-time Olympian Sharon Day-Monroe in 2008 (women’s high jump) and the first on the men’s side for the Mustangs since Reynaldo Brown (men’s high jump) in 1973. McCarthy is also the first man in the history of the Cal Poly track and field program to qualify for DI indoor nationals in an event on the track.
By virtue of qualifying for the NCAA Indoor Championships, McCarthy has already earned All-American honors, becoming the third Division I indoor All-American in the history of the Cal Poly men’s track and field program, joining Mohinder Gill (1971 triple jump national champion) and Reynaldo Brown (1973, fifth in the high jump).
McCarthy is no stranger to the national stage as nearly two years ago at the 2023 NCAA Outdoor Championships in Austin, Texas, he placed seventh in the 800-meter to become the first Mustang since 2011 to secure First Team All-American honors. That season, McCarthy became the first Mustang in program history to place first in an event at the NCAA West Preliminaries by winning the 800 and became Cal Poly's first back-to-back Big West champion in the men's 800.
McCarthy is the current school record holder in the indoor and outdoor 800, the mile and the 1,000.
