Three national champions return from Indianapolis

Mar 18, 2025

Three members of the CCAA's extended sports family took home national championships last week at the NCAA Division II Festival in Indianapolis.
 
Cal State San Marcos' Rasha Badrani won the women's 400-meter, Stanislaus State's Annie Wild won the women's mile, and San Francisco State's Johnny Lopez won the 141-pound weight class in wrestling.
 
Rasha Badrani won the 400-meter National Championship at the NCAA Division II Indoor Track & Field Championships on Saturday, Mar. 15, at Fall Creek Pavilion at Indiana State Fairgrounds. She matched her program record of 52.92 seconds, finishing .28 ahead of second-place. The San Marcos native paced herself with the slowest first lap in the two-heat field of eight at 25.50 seconds before turning on the jets with the fastest second lap at 27.42 seconds. Badrani is the track & field program's first NCAA National Champion and is CSUSM Athletics' second overall after women's golf's Jaime Jacob won the individual title in 2019. CSUSM Story
 
With her time of 4:40.62 in the finals of the mile at the 2025 NCAA Division II Indoor Track & Field Championships, Annie Wild became Stan State's first-ever Indoor Track & Field National Champion. Wild is the 24th All-American in Stan State Indoor Track & Field history. She was running in second place with 300m to go before she passed the leader to capture the national championship. Stan State Story
 
Johnny Lopez returned to San Francisco State this week as the NCAA Division II National Champion at 141 lb. He won both of Saturday's bouts and finished 4-0 to stand atop the podium at the 2025 NCAA Division II Winter Festival. Lopez, who finished the season 27-2, was ranked No. 8 in NCAA Division II at 141 lb. by the NWCA. After finishing Friday with two wins over Quincy's Sabian Russell and No. 10 Lake Erie's Christian Small, who was the top seed in the bracket. Lopez won the championship bout 8-7 over West Liberty's Khyvon Grace. He became the 14th National Champion in program history and the program's first National Champion since Naveed Bagheri in 2013, also at 141 lb. This is the highest finish by a Gator since Jordan Gurrola (133 lb.) finished fourth in Cleveland in 2019. SF State Story
 
Wrestling and indoor track & field at not CCAA sponsored sports at the moment, but all three schools compete in the CCAA for the majority of their sports. Badrani and Wild will now turn their attention to the outdoor track & field season where they are expected to compete in the CCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships presented by Pollo Campero on Apr. 30-May 2 in Turlock, Calif.