Cal Poly Track & Field Releases 2026 Outdoor Schedule
2/18/2026 6:00:00 PM | Track and Field
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — Highlighted by hosting the fourth annual Mark Conover Classic on March 21, the Cal Poly track and field program announced its full outdoor season schedule Wednesday.
The Mustangs open their outdoor slate March 5-7 at UC Santa Barbara’s Pauley Track as one multi-event athlete will take part in the Sam Adams Combined Events on March 5-6, while the rest of the team competes in the Gaucho Relays on March 6-7.
Cal Poly will travel a handful of distance runners to the Aztec Distance Carnival hosted by San Diego State on March 13 before returning home to host the fourth annual Mark Conover Classic on Saturday, March 21, at the Miller & Capriotti Athletics Complex. During last year’s meet, Lexi Evans shattered the school record in the pole vault and the Mustangs won 21 events.
The team heads to the West Coast Relays hosted by Fresno State on March 27-28 before splitting the squad the following weekend on April 3-4, sending its top athletes to the Stanford Invitational and the rest to the Mike Fanelli Track Classic at San Francisco State.
Cal Poly will take a week off from action after that to prepare to take part in two of the largest, most competitive meets in the country on April 16-18 in Southern California. The Mustangs’ distance runners will head to Azusa Pacific to race in the Bryan Clay Invitational — coined as the fastest and largest collegiate meet in the country — while the rest of the squad competes in the 66th annual Mt. SAC Relays held at historic Hilmer Lodge Stadium.
The Mustangs participate in the UCSB Invite on April 24-25 before traveling back to Clovis again on May 1-2 to compete in the Fresno State Invite.
The Franson Last Chance Invite held on the blistering track at Azusa Pacific’s Cougar Athletic Stadium on May 8-9 will mark the end of regular season action for Cal Poly. A handful of Mustangs will take part in the meet as one last chance to earn an NCAA West Preliminaries qualifying mark before the conference championships.
The 2026 Big West Track & Field Championships will be hosted by Long Beach State for the second straight year. The Mustangs are not expected to have any athletes compete in the multi-event portion (heptathlon and decathlon) of the meet contested at UC Irvine’s Anteater Stadium on May 8-9, while the full conference meet takes place at Jack Rose Track on May 15-16. Last year, the Cal Poly men captured their second straight Big West title thanks to an incredible 114 points from their distance squad, while the women finished 1.5 points shy of defending their 2024 crown, placing second.
The NCAA West Preliminaries are scheduled for May 27-30 at Arkansas’ John McDonnell Field. Last year, a program-record 20 athletes qualified for the West Prelims and the Mustangs set a new-program record for individual entries to the meet with 17 — 13 men and four women. The men’s 4x400-meter relay also qualified for the meet for the first time in school history.
The top 12 finishers in each event at the West Prelims, along with the top 12 from the East Regional, will advance to the 2026 NCAA Outdoor Championships held at University of Oregon's Hayward Field on June 10-13. The Mustangs had an historic showing in Eugene last season as Aidan McCarthy (men’s 800-meter) and Rory Devaney (men’s hammer throw) both placed fifth in their respective events at the NCAA Championships to earn First Team All-American honors while Travis Martin earned Second Team All-American status by taking 10th in the men’s hammer throw. The three All-American honorees outdoors marked 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. In addition, the three individual NCAA qualifiers for the men matched a program record.
This season, Cal Poly returns 14 athletes that earned All-Big West honors a year ago (finished top three in their event at conference), four athletes that claimed Big West titles — including Aidan McCarthy and Michael Chambers who each won two — and 14 Mustangs that competed at the NCAA West Prelims.
