NCAA Indoor Championships
McCarthy Advances to 800 Final at NCAA Indoor Championships
3/14/2025 9:00:00 PM | Track and Field
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Aidan McCarthy will race for a national championship in the men’s indoor 800-meter.
The Pleasanton, Calif. native punched his ticket to the 800 final at the NCAA Indoor Championships on Friday at the Virginia Beach Sports Center with his performance in the semifinals of the event.
A total of 16 runners competed in the two semifinal heats Friday with the top three finishers in each heat along with the next two fastest times advancing to Saturday’s final. In heat two, McCarthy hit the jets in the final 350 meters to go from last to third place at the finish line, earning the final automatic qualifier spot in his heat to advance to the NCAA Championship race on Saturday.
McCarthy posted the seventh fastest time between the two heats (1:47.38). The 2023 First Team All-American in the outdoor 800 entered the meet with the top time ran in the nation this season, laying down one of the most impressive performances in NCAA history at the Last Chance National Qualifier hosted by Boston University on March 2. He ran the fastest indoor 800 time by an American in collegiate history (1:45.19) and the third fastest indoor 800 time ever by a collegian.
McCarthy will compete in the 800 final at the NCAA Indoor Championships at 3:30 p.m. PDT Saturday in Virginia Beach. The race will be streamed live on ESPN+.
On Saturday, McCarthy is seeking to become just the second indoor National Champion in the history of the Cal Poly track and field program and join Mustang legend Mohinder Gill, who won the 1971 national title in the men’s indoor triple jump and competed at the 1972 Olympics. Between the indoor and outdoor seasons, McCarthy is looking to become Cal Poly’s 12th overall national champion and first since two-time Olympian Sharon Day-Monroe won the 2005 women’s outdoor high jump title.
By virtue of qualifying for the NCAA Indoor Championships, McCarthy became the third Division I indoor All-American in the history of the Cal Poly men’s track and field program, joining Mohinder Gill and Reynaldo Brown (1973, fifth in the high jump). McCarthy is Cal Poly’s first NCAA Division I indoor national qualifier since Sharon Day-Monroe in 2008 (women’s high jump) and the first on the men’s side for the Mustangs since Reynaldo Brown in 1973.
