SAN MARCOS, Calif. – The Cal State San Marcos men's and women's track & field teams will host the Mangrum Invitational on Friday beginning at 10 a.m. before venturing off to USC's Ron & Sharlene Allice Trojan Invitational and UCLA's Rafer Johnson/Jackie Joyner-Kersee Invitational for meets on Saturday.
 
LAST MEET

• CSUSM competed at Point Loma's Ross & Sharon Irwin Invitational this past Saturday in San Diego.
• On the men's side, Juan Leyva had the best result of the day, finishing fifth out of 18 entrants in the hammer throw with a mark of 48.69 meters.
• On the women's side, Trinity Barr tied for the second-best high jump mark in program history at 1.65 meters – .04 better than her mark last week at the Ben Brown Invitational. Her mark was the best by a Cougar since 2015 and was just .02 shy of an NCAA provisional.
• Kayla James posted the 10th-best 100-meter dash mark in team history at 12.39 seconds and finished seventh. Devin Yarbrough, who already holds the fifth-fastest time in program history, finished in 12.29 seconds – .05 off her PR.
• Lauren Meredith tallied the fourth-best pole vault mark in program history at 3.51 meters while Lilly McGraw recorded the same height.

MANGRUM INVITATIONAL

• This will be the 10th Mangrum Invitational since starting in 2009.
• Including CSUSM, there will be 33 schools represented from all divisions of the NCAA, NAIA, CCCAA and NJCAA.
• Division I schools set to compete are Boise State, Cal State Fullerton, St. Mary's and UC Riverside.
• Division II schools will include Academy of Art, Alaska Anchorage, Azusa Pacific, Biola, Cal Poly Pomona, Cal State Dominguez Hills, Cal State Monterey Bay, Cal State San Marcos, Point Loma, San Francisco State and Seattle Pacific.
• Division III schools will include Caltech, Chapman, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, La Verne, Middlebury, Occidental, Pomona-Pitzer and Whitman
• From the NAIA, Embry-Riddle (Ariz.) will compete.
• In the NJCAA, Salt Lake CC will join the field.
• Representing the CCCAA will be Cuyamaca, Golden West, Long Beach City, Orange Coast, Riverside, San Bernardino Valley, San Diego Mesa and Southwestern.
• In all, there are over 1,000 entries for the meet's 41 events.
• The meet will begin with the men's discus and women's hammer throw at 10 a.m. and will wrap up with the men's 10,000-meter run at 9:08 p.m.

RAFER JOHNSON/JACKIE JOYNER-KERSEE INVITATIONAL

• A select number of student-athletes from the men's and women's teams will make their way to UCLA for the Rafer Johnson/Jackie Joyner-Kersee Invitational on Saturday.
• From the men's team, Aeden Fernandez, Kalathan Laiwa-McKay, Julian Watson and Jason Wells will be competing.
• On the women's side, Rasha Badrani, Jordyn Brooks, Hazel Groff, Lilly McGraw, Angela McManus, Lauren Meredith, Shaylee Mutka, Mia Salinas and Devin Yarbrough will represent CSUSM.
• The Cougars last competed at UCLA in 2022 in the Bob Larson Distance Carnival, but this will be their first time taking part in the Rafer Johnson/Jackie Joyner-Kersee Invitational since 2009.

RON & SHARLENE ALLICE TROJAN INVITATIONAL

• Nick Melanese, Trevor Boaz and Renton McGregor will be the only Cougars competing as they'll represent the men's team in the 800-meter run at USC on Saturday.
• This will be CSUSM's first time competing at a meet hosted by USC.
• The 800-meter run will take place at 1:35 p.m.

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).