WAVERLY, IA. – The UC Santa Cruz men's and women's track and field teams performed strongly at the NCAA Final Qualifier, setting personal and season-best marks while competing for national qualifying times. The Slugs showed strength and consistency across several events, with standout performances in both track and field.
Women's Meet Highlights

• Women's Mile: Elena Stanciu recorded a personal best and program record time of 4:57.49, finishing second overall. Stanciu's time stands as a moment in history for the UC Santa Cruz women's track and field team as its just sub five minute time of any Banana Slug in the indoor mile. Kenzie Seymour also posted a strong time of 5:04.14, placing seventh for the Slugs.

Men's Meet Highlights

• Men's 800m: Aaron Hillberg led the Slugs in the 800m, recording a season-best time of 1:54.93, finishing 10th overall. Eric Anderson did not finish the race.
• Men's Mile: Eric Anderson delivered a standout performance in the mile, winning the event with a time of 4:08.95 to set a meet record. His strong finish secured valuable momentum for the Slugs heading into the NCAA Indoor National Championship.
• Men's Heptathlon: Evan Hofstetter delivered a strong all-around performance in the heptathlon, finishing with a total of 4,656 points. His highlights included a 7.13s 60m dash (837 points) to place second, a 6.41m long jump (677 points) to finish third, and a 2:33.32 in the 1000m, setting a heptathlon facility and meet record while earning 949 points. Hofstetter also posted marks of 9.51 seconds in the 60m hurdles (637 points), 1.71m in the high jump (552 points), 3.70m in the pole vault (535 points), and 9.72m in the shot put (469 points) to cap off a well-rounded effort for the Slugs.