UC San Diego’s track and field team will begin its 2026 outdoor season on Friday, March 6, at the RCC Invitational hosted by Riverside City College. Field events are scheduled to start at 9:30 a.m., with track events beginning at 2:50 p.m.
This marks the Tritons’ first outdoor meet of the year after participating in three indoor competitions during their second year sponsoring an indoor program. The team secured eight event victories in those meets, including wins by Makena Bailey in the women’s high jump and Tamara Aimufia in the women’s long jump.
The outdoor schedule features eight regular season meets for UC San Diego, culminating with Arizona’s Desert Heat Classic on May 2. The Tritons will host the 33rd Triton Invitational on April 3-4 at their home stadium in La Jolla. Tickets for this event are currently available.
Postseason competition includes the Big West Track & Field Championships set for May 15-16 at Long Beach State. The heptathlon and decathlon will take place a week earlier at UC Irvine. This is UC San Diego’s second year being eligible for postseason participation as a Division I program. At last year’s conference championships, the women’s team finished fifth and the men’s team placed seventh.
The NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships begin with regional first rounds from May 27-30 in Fayetteville, Arkansas, where the top athletes from each region compete for spots in the national finals scheduled for June 10-13 in Eugene, Oregon.
Last season, two Triton athletes—Tamara Aimufia (women’s long jump) and Feyi Olukanni (women’s shot put)—won individual Big West titles and return to compete again this year. Jordyn Thomas also returns from last year’s championship-winning women’s 4x400m relay squad.
Five of six scholar-athletes who qualified for last year’s NCAA First Round are back this season: Tamara Aimufia (jumps), Miles Bennett (jumps), Anthony Flowers (sprints), Sylvana Northrop (distance), and Feyi Olukanni (throws).
Kim Graham-Miller continues as head coach of both men’s and women’s teams after joining UC San Diego in July 2022. She previously coached relays, sprints, and hurdles at Sacramento State, contributing to six Big Sky Conference titles during her tenure there. Graham-Miller was an accomplished athlete herself—a three-time ACC Performer of the Year while at Clemson University—and won an Olympic gold medal as part of Team USA’s women’s 4×400 meter relay team at the Atlanta Games in 1996. She was inducted into Clemson’s Hall of Fame in 1999 and entered its Ring of Honor—the university’s highest athletic distinction—in summer 2024.
The Triton mascot reflects UC San Diego’s connection to marine science through its proximity to the Pacific Ocean and affiliation with Scripps Institution of Oceanography; it has represented campus athletics since 1964.
Fans can follow UC San Diego track & field throughout the season via social media (@ucsdtrackfield) or listen to interviews and updates on “Tritoncast,” a weekly podcast produced by Athletics Communications that highlights scholar-athletes, coaches, alumni, and administrators as part of UC San Diego’s transition to Division I competition.
Younger fans can join the Junior Triton Club if they are eighth grade or under; membership offers benefits such as free admission to over one hundred home athletic events each year along with other perks like apparel giveaways.
UC San Diego Athletics transitioned from NCAA Division II—where it achieved significant success—to Division I membership within The Big West Conference. Over two decades competing across Divisions II and III, Triton teams won thirty national championships while nearly one hundred fifty individuals earned national titles; more than fourteen hundred scholar-athletes received All-America honors during that time span.
