NCAA Outdoor Championships
McCarthy Earns Third Career All-American Finish to Cap Historic Season
6/13/2025 11:30:00 PM | Track and Field
EUGENE, Ore. — Redshirt junior Aidan McCarthy capped off one of the most historic seasons in recent memory for the Cal Poly track and field program on Friday night at University of Oregon’s Hayward Field.
McCarthy placed fifth overall in the men’s 800-meter final at the 2025 NCAA Outdoor Championships with a time of 1:46.88. By finishing in the top eight in the event, McCarthy earned First Team All-American honors for the second time this year after the Pleasanton, Calif. native took third in the 800 at the NCAA Indoor Championships in March. This is the second time McCarthy has achieved First Team All-American status outdoors as he grabbed a seventh-place finish at the 2023 meet in his first NCAA Championship appearance. On Friday, McCarthy was seeking to become the sixth Division I outdoor national champion in the history of the men's track and field program and first since 1973.
The Pleasanton, Calif. native became the first Cal Poly athlete to achieve a pair of Division I All-American finishes in the same event during a year since Sharon-Day Monroe took second in the high jump in 2008 both indoors and outdoors. McCarthy is the first athlete on the men’s side to accomplish the feat since Reynaldo Brown won the 1973 Division I outdoor national championship in the high jump and tied for fifth place indoors.
Between the indoor and outdoor seasons, McCarthy is now a three-time First Team All-American (top eight finish individually) in his career, becoming the eighth three-time Division I All-American in Cal Poly history, joining Mohinder Gill, Reynaldo Brown, Kaaron Conwright, Paula Serrano, Stephanie Brown Trafton, Kaylene Wagner and Sharon Day-Monroe. McCarthy is the first three-time All-American for the Mustangs since Day-Monroe earned All-American status seven times across her career (2004-08).
The career best finish outdoors for McCarthy wrapped up one of the most historic years by a Cal Poly athlete on the track in program history. The 2025 Big West Men’s Track Athlete of the meet won his third conference title in the 800 and first in the 1,500, ran the fastest indoor 800 by an American in collegiate history (1:45.19), broke school records in the outdoor 800, indoor 800, indoor 1,000 and mile, and became the third men’s Division I indoor All-American in school history and first since 1973. The year to remember for McCarthy comes after he missed the entire 2024 outdoor season and nearly the entire indoor season due to a stress fracture in his foot.
McCarthy’s finish coupled with Rory Devaney’s fifth-place finish in the men’s hammer throw on Wednesday allowed Cal Poly to finish with 8 team points, tying them with four other schools for 37th-place. It’s the fifth highest team finish for the Cal Poly men at the Division I meet and the best since tying for 36th in 2000 with 6 team points. The 8 team points are tied for the second most the Mustang men have scored at the Division I meet, only trailing the 1961 squad that racked up 13.25 points to place 10th overall.
With Travis Martin taking 10th in the men’s hammer throw, Cal Poly saw three different individuals secure All-American honors outdoors (two First Team honorees, one Second Team), marking just the third time in school history the Mustangs have achieved that feat during a season and the second time on the men’s side, joining the 1979 team.
The three NCAA Outdoor Championship qualifiers for the Mustangs this season were the most by the program since Cal Poly sent three athletes to nationals in 2005 (two women, one man) and are tied for the most individual qualifiers ever by the Cal Poly men’s team, joining the 1979 squad. This also marked the first time since 2015 (Danielle Bryan, Ashley Windsor) that Cal Poly qualified multiple athletes for the NCAA Outdoor Championships.
McCarthy, Devaney and Martin are all set to return next year. McCarthy has one year of eligibility left in both indoor and outdoor track, and has no eligibility remaining in cross country.
