The Cal State San Marcos men's track & field team put together its strongest season since 2010, taking 18th place at the NAIA National Championships. Three Cougars earned All-Amercia honors and the Cougars took down a number of school records.

The team's first competition of the season was the Rossi Relays on Feb. 23. Maurice Strickland ran a personal-best 14.30 in the 110m hurdles to win the competition. In addition, the men's 4x400 relay team ran 3:18.61 to finish in first place, one second ahead of USC. Josh Maffei placed second in the discus (137 feet, 10 inches) and the men's distance medley took second overall.

The Cougars received some tough news when their annual home meet, the Mangrum Invitational, was cancelled due to inclement weather. CSUSM would not be able to compete on its home track in front of the home fans the rest of the season.

The endurance team put on a show at Mar. 14's Oxy Distance Carnival. Steven Ing and Western Nelson finished well under the "A" standard in the 5000m, running 14:36.20 and 14:40.15, respectively. Deng Akuien ran a personal best in the 3000m steeplechase.

The Cougars took fourth in the San Diego Collegiate Challenge on Mar. 15. The CSUSM men's 4.x00m relay team won its race with a time of 42.61. Greg Talley jumped 1.93m in the high jump and Strickland cleared 4.5m in the pole vault.

CSUSM would go on to finish fourth out of 23 teams at Point Loma Nazarene's Sharon Irwin Invitational. Kyle Johnson placed second overall with a time of 15.15 in the 110m hurdles, while Damon Moore hit the "B" standard with a personal best of 54.11 in the 400m hurdles. Talley (high jump) and Strickland (javelin) placed third, while Michael Anastasia (triple jump) and Patrick Holstrom (pole vault) placed fourth. Talley's leap secured an automatic berth to the NAIA National Championships.

The Cougars headed south to take part in the Aztec Invitational, a competition including a number of NCAA Division I programs. Strickland destroyed his own school record in the decathlon with 6,924 total points. Justin Washington won his heat in the 800m and Anthony Giralmo won the 1500m open division race.

CSUSM took ninth out of 23 teams in the Cal-Nevada Invite on April 5. Damon Moore tallied six points for the team with his fourth-place finish in the 400m hurdles (53.69). Frederik Jahr and Talley both cleared 2.00m in the high jump, and Western Nelson took third place in the 5000m.

Strickland ran the 400m hurdles for the first time as a collegian at the Pomona-Pitzer Invite and instantly came in under the NAIA "A" standard with a time of 53.31, the fourth-best time in the NAIA to that point. Washington shaved a second off is 800m time, coming in at 1:56.17.

Daniel Ybarra qualified for nationals with a time of 1:11:28 at the San Luis Rey River Half-Marathon.

The Cougars posted strong marks at the Mt. Sac Invite on Apr. 18. Nelson hit the "B" standard in the 10,000m, while Ing put up the ninth-best time in the NAIA in the 5,000m, 14:40.33.

Kyle Johnson hit the NAIA "B" standard with a time of 14.99 in the 110m hurdles at Apr. 26's Triton Invitational. Moore ran 54.91 in the 400m hurdles, and then helped the 4x400 meter relay team to a second-place finish. Strickland shined once again, hitting the "B" standard in the pole vault – the fifth event in which he qualified for nationals.

Despite sweltering 90-degree heat, the Cougars impressed at their head coach's namesake event, the adidas/Steve Scott Invite, hosted by UC Irvine. Deng Akuien kicked things off with a personal record in the 3,000m steeplechase with a time of 9:14.70, an automatic qualifying time for the NAIA National Championships. Strickland ran 14.28 in the 110m hurdles, his personal best. Talley placed fifth in the high jump with a leap of 2.00m.

CSUSM had its last opportunity to post its final marks at May 11's Oxy Invite. The Cougars hit a number of "B" standards on the day: Ing and Laurenzana in the 1500m, Washington in the 800m, the 4x400 relay team, and Nelson in the 5000m.

In all, 13 student-athletes on the men's side would compete at the NAIA National Championships, May. 22-24 in Orange Beach, Ala.
 
Strickland made headlines in the decathlon on the first day of the competition with a time of 48.00 in the 400m event. It broke a 37-year-old record by .14 seconds. He totaled 3,621 points on the first day of the competition, good enough for a fifth-place tie. Akuien punched his ticket for the final by taking fourth-place in his heat of the 3,000m steeple prelims.

Nelson took 10th place in the 10000m final with a time of 32:107.71. Moore (400m hurdles, 53.87) and Laurenzana (1500m, 3:56.94) did not move on to the final in their respective events.

Two Cougars earned of All-America honors on Day Two, Strickland in the decathlon and Talley in the high jump. Strickland would finish runner-up in the decathlon with a school-record 7,416 total points, the highest national finish of any CSUSM student-athlete since 2010. Talley placed sixth in the high jump, matching the school record with a lead of 2.06m. Ing punched his ticket to the 5,000m final with a time of 15:04.45.

Strickland earned eight team points, Talley added three more, and the Cougars were in ninth place through two days of the completion with 11 points total.

The Cougars impressed on the final day and added two more All-America nods. Akuien ran a personal-best time of 9:11.19 in the steeplechase to take sixth place. Strickland vaulted 4.90m in the pole vault and placed seventh.

When it was all said and done, the Cougars took 18^th place overall with 16 total points – the team's best national finish since taking 15^th in 2010.

Ace Fletcher, Ryan Jensen and Nguyen Pham were honored as NAIA-Daktronics Scholar-Athletes for holding cumulative GPA's of over 3.5 on a 4.0 scale.

Ing was selected to the Capital One/CoSIDA Academic All-District squad.