California Collegiate Athletics Association

CCAA Selects 2020 Men's Track & Field All-Star Team

May 19, 2020

With the global COVID-19 pandemic suspending and subsequently ending the 2019-20 college athletics season in mid-March, it became an impossibility to properly bestow all-conference honors for spring sports. As a result, the CCAA is pleased to announce the first, and hopefully last, CCAA All-Star Teams, in a fun effort to recognize and celebrate the accomplishments across the league during the abbreviated 2020 campaign.

After the CCAA Softball, Baseball and Women’s Track & Field All-Star Teams were unveiled the previous weeks, today, we reveal the 2020 CCAA Men’s Track & Field All-Star Team to close out our spring all-star selections.

The list of 32 student-athletes mirrors the championship roster size for CCAA track & field, and is not bound by specific events. All nine men’s track & field programs were guaranteed one representative to showcase talent across the league. These standout performers were submitted for consideration by the league’s men’s track & field sports information contacts, with additional nominees listed, by school, at the bottom.

The All-Stars are selected based solely on performances and marks achieved during the shortened spring season, therefore some big names in the sport are absent based on the limited number of competition dates. Each individual picked has a worthy standard set during the 2020 outdoor season to earn their All-Star selection.

Impressively, of the 28 NCAA Division II men’s track & field automatic and provisional qualifying marks, 18 belong to CCAA student-athletes.

Speedy performances and national top 10 marks rounding the track abound throughout the conference. Cal State LA junior tandem of Nicholas Harper (21.11 s | 1st CCAA | 1st DII) and Shingirai Hlanguyo (21.24s | 2nd CCAA | 2nd DII) both collected provisional qualifying times in the 200 meters to stand 1-2 in the event performance lists, both in the conference and nation. Hlanguyo also leads the league at the 100 meter distance with a time of 10.67 seconds while Harper heads up the performance lists in the 400 meters as well. 

Ryan Fields (52.82 s) and Kaelin Moore (53.01 s) sit first and second, respectively, in the 400 meter hurdles, with Moore opening 2020 as the defending CCAA champion in the event. Both earned provisional marks in the hurdles, as did Cal State San Marcos junior Jonathan Burton (53.27 s | 3rd CCAA | 3rd DII) and Leyikun Solomon (53.34 s | 4th CCAA | 4th DII) of UC San Diego.

Competing in the 100, 200 and relays in the early-goings of the season was Cal Poly Pomona sprinter Kyle Johnston. Third in the CCAA at the 200 meter distance, Johnson, along with fellow All-Stars Fields and Moore raced to a Division II-best time in the 4x400 meter relay.

Also racing their way to All-Star nods was a pair of defending conference champions: Stanislaus State junior and defending champ in the 100 and 200, Terrence Gladney (200: 22.12 s | 4th CCAA - 400: 50.01 s | 7th CCAA), and UC San Diego 400 meter sprinter Max Halvax (48.31 s | 2nd CCAA | 3rd DII).

Cal Poly Pomona senior Alejandro Ambrosio led the way in the 1,500 meters with a mark of 3:55.44 to top the conference and national performance lists. Cal State LA’s Abraxaz Sanchez-Lopez (800: 1:54.90 | 3rd CCAA | 3rd DII) also earned All-Star selection. 

A trio of distance runners see their name on the lists, with 5,000 meters marks by Chico State sophomore Jack Emanuel (14:45.84 | 1st CCAA | 9th DII) and San Francisco State’s Carlos Gonzalez (15:56.79 | 18th CCAA) nabbing selection. Representing the Pioneers, sophomore Bryan Llopis of Cal State East Bay (10K: 32:52.68 | 3rd CCAA | 8th DII - 1500 m: 4:02.90 | 7th CCAA) also made the All-Star list.

Four CCAA decathletes made the list, headlined by a trio of early-season provisional qualifiers. Cal Poly Pomona’s Kyle Lawson turned (6,833 pts | 1st CCAA | 1st DII) was followed by Chico State duo Alex Robie (6,501 pts | 2nd CCAA | 2nd DII) and Alex Davila (6,384 pts | 3rd CCAA | 3rd DII) at the Chico Multi-Event Classic as each picked up a qualifying mark. Also earning the All-Star nod is senior Wildcat Randall LeBlanc (5,750 pts | 7th CCAA | 8th DII), the 2018 CCAA Championships event winner. Along with top 10 national marks in the multis, each man finds himself in the top 10 in individual events as well. 

Lawson leads the conference and ranks seventh nationally in the javelin, while Robie’s high jump and Davila’s long jump rate ninth in the country. Lawson and LeBlanc both land in the DII top 10 in the pole vault, at sixth and seventh, respectively.

Throws are well-represented on the All-Star list, including the one-two tandem from Stanislaus State Eric Bejaran (HT: 61.91 m | 1st CCAA | 2nd DII - SP: 15.97 m | 3rd CCAA | 4th DII) and Matthew Gallego (SP: 15.77 m | 5th CCAA | 6th DII - HT: 54.71 m | 3rd CCAA | 5th DII). The three-time CCAA hammer throw champion and Stanislaus State school record holder, Bejeran hurled a provisional mark in the event in the season opener. 

Also garnering a DII provisional standard in the hammer to earn All-Star selection is Cal Poly Pomona senior Aaron Guerra-Garcia (55.90 m | 2nd CCAA | 4th DII). UC San Diego’s Blake Walkowiak (DT: 52.75 m | 1st CCAA | 2nd DII) - SP: 15.88 m | 4th CCAA | 5th DII) hurled a provisional mark in the discus while fellow Triton Devin Lecakes-Jones (16.43 m | 1st CCAA | 1st DII) earned his provisional is the shot put with a DII-best throw.

Two pole vaulters soared to provisional standards and All-Star nods with Cal Poly Pomona sophomore Matteo Madrassi (5.05 m | 1st CCAA | 2nd DII) joined by UC San Diego senior Evan Shimasaki (5.05 m | 2nd CCAA | 3rd DII). Simasaki’s leap is tied for tops all-time at UC San Diego.

In the high jump, Cal State LA’s Porte-Joie Tshiaba won all three events he was in this season to claim the top mark in the conference and nation at 2.11 meters. Cal State San Marcos’ Justice Chima (2.01 m | 2nd CCAA | 4th DII)  cleared the bar at 2.01 meters to tie his personal best and earn All-Star honors. Senior long jumper Jaye Washington (6.90 m | 1st CCAA | 4th DII) is representing Humboldt State and leading the conference in the event. 

Four triple triple jumpers round out the All-Star selections, headlined by a pair of freshmen provisional qualifiers in UC San Diego’s Nathan Yoder (14.70 m | 1st CCAA | 1st DII) and Cal Poly Pomona’s Anthony Victa (14.69 m | 2nd CCAA | 2nd DII). Joining Yoder and Victa to round out the 32-man squad are Cougar Antonio Riggins (14.33 m | 3rd CCAA | 3rd DII) and Cal State LA’s Derrick Atkins (14.14 m | 4th CCAA| 4th DII). 

In addition to the All-Star Team, the 2020 CCAA Men’s Track & Field Championship Scholar was also named by the league office on Tuesday, with Chico State senior Hakim Tokhi the recipient. Typically awarded at each championship final site, the Championship Scholar Award recognizes the individual in the field who has achieved the highest academic standard among their peers in each conference-sponsored sport.

Hailing from Pleasanton, Tokhi spent two years as a multi-event athlete for the Wildcats after transferring to Chico State from Las Positas College. Primarily competing in the sprints in 2019, Tokhi suited up in the decathlon at the Chico State Multi-Event Classic to open the spring, and also competed in three events at the Kim Duyst Invitational prior to the cessation of the season. 

In the classroom, Tokhi keeps an impressive 3.993 grade-point average in his studies in exercise physiology at Chico State. 

The Championship Scholar Award is presented to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative gpa participating at the final CCAA championship site in each conference-sponsored sport. For the spring of 2020, all participating student-athletes in each sport received consideration for the award.