SAN MARCOS, Calif. – The Cal State San Marcos men's and women's track & field teams will return to action at Cal State Fullerton's Ben Brown Invitational on Friday and Saturday at the Titan Track Complex while a small contingent of the men's team will compete at the Oxy Distance Carnival on Saturday.
 
LAST WEEK

• At Long Beach State's Beach Opener, Rasha Badrani posted an NCAA provisional time of 1:01.58 in the 400-meter hurdles while winning the event.
• For her mark, Badrani was named the CCAA Women's Track Athlete of the Week on Tuesday. 
• Trinity Barr tied for the third-best high jump mark in program history at 1.61 meters – .06 better than the height she recorded last week.
• Dymon Preyor beat out her PR in the long jump by .01 with the fourth-best leap in program history at 5.47 meters.
• In the 4x100-meter relay, the team of Kailey Frye, Orchid Concha, Isabel Ortiz and Rasha Badrani recorded the ninth-fastest time in program history at 47.68.
• Concha later ran the ninth-fastest 100-meter dash in team history at 12.50 meters.
• A week after recording the second-best hammer throw mark in program history, Juan Leyva broke the school record with a distance of 52.51 meters on Friday. He beat out the 2019 record of 52.43 meters set by Thomas Fadden.
• Kalathan Laiwa-McKay broke his own school record in the shot put at 17.14 meters – .10 better than the NCAA provisional mark he set last week. He finished third out of 36 entrants.
• Aeden Fernandez posted the sixth-fastest 400-meter time in program history at 49.11 and finished eighth out of 45. His time in the event was the fastest by a Cougar since 2014.
• Later, Fernandez tallied the fourth-fastest 200 time in team history at 21.85.

BEN BROWN INVITATIONAL

• The Ben Brown Invitational will commence at 10 a.m. on both Friday and Saturday.
• This will be the second consecutive season the Cougars will be competing at the Ben Brown Invitational and the sixth time overall.
• Last year, the men's and women's teams each posted three top-10 program marks.

OXY DISTANCE CARNIVAL

• A small group of the men's team will compete in the 5K at the Oxy Distance Carnival on Saturday at 6:55 p.m.
• This will be CSUSM's first time competing at the Oxy Distance Carnival since 2018 and 14th time overall.

THE OLSON FILE

• Head coach Torrey Olson begins his sixth season at the helm of the men's and women's track & field programs after taking over in the summer of 2018.
• In 2019, Olson's men's and women's squads tallied three individual CCAA Championships for outdoor competition while the men's team earned five USTFCCCA All-West Region selections.
• In 2022, Olson guided both teams to a combined three individual CCAA Championships, 13 All-CCAA selections and five outdoor and three indoor USTFCCCA All-West Region honors.
• In 2023, the Cougars earned a combined five individual CCAA Championships, 19 All-CCAA selections, six outdoor and three indoor USTFCCCA All-West Region honorees under Olson's leadership.
• Olson came to CSUSM after spending three seasons as the Director of Track & Field and Cross Country at the Academy of Art University where his teams earned 50-plus All-American honors.
• Olson served as the head cross country coach the previous three years at Academy of Art.
• In addition to the Academy of Art, Olson has also worked with the University of San Francisco and Pomona-Pitzer College.
• A graduate of Pomona College in 2009, Olson also holds an MFA from St. Mary's College (2012).