NCAA Indoor Championships
McCarthy Caps Sensational Indoor Season by Earning First Team All-American Honors
3/15/2025 10:00:00 PM | Track and Field
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — For the first time in the history of the Cal Poly men’s track and field program, the Mustangs have a Division I First Team All-American indoors in an event on the track.
800-meter phenom Aidan McCarthy helped the Mustangs accomplish that feat, capturing an impressive third-place finish at the NCAA Indoor Championships on Saturday at the Virginia Beach Sports Center.
McCarthy used a late charge in the final 100 meters to earn a bronze medal finish in the men’s 800-meter with a time of 1:46.78, only finishing behind Mississippi State’s Abdullahi Hassan (1:46.65) and Oregon’s Matthew Erickson (1:46.43). The finish allowed the Pleasanton, Calif. native to become the first Cal Poly men’s track and field athlete to secure Division I First Team All-American honors in an event on the track indoors and just the third overall, joining Mohinder Gill (1971 triple jump national champion) and Reynaldo Brown (1973, fifth in the high jump).
McCarthy’s performance allowed the Cal Poly men to score team points at the NCAA Indoor Championships for the first time in program history, registering 6 team points for the Mustangs.
McCarthy is Cal Poly’s first First Team Indoor All-American since Sharon Day-Monroe finished second in the women’s high jump in 2008 and the first on the men’s side since Reynaldo Brown in 1973.
With the result, McCarthy is now a two-time First Team All-American. At the 2023 NCAA Outdoor Championships in Austin, McCarthy placed seventh in the 800 to become Cal Poly's first First Team All-American in the men's 800 in Division I program history.
McCarthy’s third-place finish at the NCAA Indoor Championships capped off a remarkable indoor season for the redshirt junior. He ran the fastest indoor 800 time in the NCAA this season, posting a blistering time of 1:45.19 at the Last Chance National Qualifier on March 2 — the fastest indoor 800 time by an American in collegiate history and the third fastest indoor 800 time ever by a collegian. He also broke school records in the 1,000 and mile.
