The Cal Poly track and field program announced on May 22 that it has secured a program record of 19 entries into the 2026 NCAA West Preliminaries, according to an official announcement on NCAA.com. The competition will take place from May 27 to May 30 at the University of Arkansas’ John McDonnell Field.
This achievement is significant as it surpasses last year’s total of 18 entries, marking a new high for Cal Poly under the current two regional format adopted in 2010. The team’s qualifiers include thirteen men and six women, with seven throwers and seven distance runners among them. Seven athletes are making their debut at this stage, while thirteen have previously competed at regionals.
Among the qualifiers are Vincent Atilano, Conrad Bernstein, Chris Caudillo, Michael Chambers, Lexi Evans, Ben Feyrer, Kelli Gaffney, Camrenne Genilla, Dheeraj Gurusamy, Bryce Kueker, Travis Martin, Aidan McCarthy, Colby Neron, Aiden Pastorian, Grace Proudfoot, Isabella Rigby, Lucas Scott, Carson Smith and Astrid Teran. Notably, for the first time in program history, Cal Poly earned three men’s javelin qualifiers (Bernstein, Neron and Scott) and is sending three steeplechasers (Chambers, Gurusamy and Kueker) for the first time since 2010.
The field for the meet consists of top marks from across the West Region—48 individual marks per event plus top relay teams—with those finishing in the top twelve advancing to nationals at Hayward Field in Oregon next month. The Mustangs led all Big West Conference schools with their number of entrants this year after recently capturing their third straight Big West men’s team title.
Several athletes enter with notable achievements: Travis Martin holds one of the best hammer throw marks nationally this season; Chris Caudillo broke both school and conference records in his event; Lexi Evans claimed her third consecutive Big West pole vault title; while others like Grace Proudfoot (high jump), Isabella Rigby (discus), Camrenne Genilla (javelin), and Kelli Gaffney (10k) each qualified by setting personal or school milestones during recent meets.
The NCAA West Prelims will be streamed live on ESPN+ each day beginning Wednesday afternoon Pacific Time. At least one Mustang will compete daily throughout prelims as they seek to advance further into championship contention.
