FAYETTEVILLE, ARK. –The Aztecs sent a quartet of track and field athletes to Fayetteville, Arkansas to compete in the opening round of the NCAA Outdoor National Championship. Charlize James, Anna Mager, Isabella Nilsen and Jada Pierre represented San Diego State in both the hurdles as well as the pole vault with Mager and Pierre advancing to the quarterfinals of their respective events.
In the 100-meter dash, Jada Pierre picked up where she left off at the Mountain West Championships. Pierre won the fourth heat of the day with a time of 13.31. Pierre secured her place in the quarterfinals by beating out competitors from various large schools such as Oklahoma, SMU, Houston and Washington. Fellow senior Charlize James submitted a strong effort running 13.46. She would take 25th place and miss out on advancing by thousandths of a second.
Anna Mager, who won silver at the Mountain West Championships, put together arguably the best 400-meter hurdles performance of her career. Mager submitted a new personal best of 57.04 while taking second place in the fifth heat of the evening. Mager finished 12th out of 47 competitors and is now the owner of the third fastest 400-meter hurdles performance in program history.
Rounding out the first day of competition was Isabella Nilsen in the pole vault. Nilsen would go on to post a 4.08m vault finishing 26th out of over 40 competitors. Nilsen finished her 2026 outdoor season with the sixth best outdoor vault in program history while also clearing 4.00m on four separate occasions, including a personal best of 4.25m at the Texas Invitational.
Both Pierre and Mager will return to the track on Saturday. The 100-meter hurdles will begin at 4:15 p.m. PST with three heats scheduled to race. Pierre will compete in the first heat of the evening with the top three finishers in each heat along with the three next fastest times advancing. The 400-meter hurdles will begin at 5:25 p.m. PST and will be spread across three heats. The quarterfinals will be streamed live on ESPN+.