COLLEGE STATION, Texas — The Triton track and field season came to a close on Saturday night after the team competed for the first time at the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships. Five Tritons competed in the West First Round: Tamara Aimufia, Miles Bennett, Amari Jenkins, Sylvana Northrop and Feyi Olukanni.
 
This year marks the first time UC San Diego is eligible to compete in Division I postseason competitions, with the Tritons completing a four-year transition process ahead of the 2024-25 season.
 
The top 48 athletes in each region (east and west) qualified for each event. The top 12 finishers advanced to the final site of the National Championships.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
After winning the Tritons' first-ever Division I conference title, Aimufia became the team's first Division I NCAA Championships participant when Thursday's long jump event kicked off. The sophomore got three jumps, with her second being the best of the three with a distance of 5.82m.
 
Olukanni also won a title at The Big West Championships before moving on to compete in the shot put event in Texas. The junior got three attempts as well, with her second being the best after throwing 14.55m.
 
Thursday concluded with Jenkins in the 400m hurdles. After four years of not being able to participate in the postseason, the grad senior made the most of her fifth year with the Tritons. She ran a career-best 58.21 at The Big West Championships before finishing with the second-best time of her career at the NCAA Championships as she came home in 59.47.
 
Friday brought Bennett in the high jump event. The senior cleared 2.04m, which became his final height. He passed on 2.09m to take a shot at a career-best 2.14m, but he came up just short on that height.
 
Northrop closed out the week on Saturday in the 5,000m. The senior stayed with the main pack to start before settling into her own race and finishing with a time of 17:12.80.
 
About UC San Diego Athletics
After two decades as one of the most successful programs in NCAA Division II, the UC San Diego intercollegiate athletics program began a new era in 2020 as a member of The Big West Conference in NCAA Division I. The 23-sport Tritons earned 30 team and nearly 150 individual national championships during its time in Divisions II and III and helped guide 1,400 scholar-athletes to All-America honors. A total of 84 Tritons have earned Academic All-America honors, while 38 have earned prestigious NCAA Post Graduate Scholarships. UC San Diego scholar-athletes exemplify the academic ideals of one of the world's preeminent institutions, graduating at an average rate of 91 percent, one of the highest rates among institutions at all divisions.