Perhaps Ian Dossman had those words ringing in his ears when he broke his own school record in the 200 meters for the second time in 20 days. The words that Cal State Fullerton track and field coach Marques Barosso kept repeating as a mantra-meets-cordially-delivered-order.
“Finish the job.”
Since the end of the 2024 outdoor track season, Barosso had seen enough almost, enough nearly and enough of just-not-enough. He’d seen enough of great practice times chased by average-to-good race results that drove him crazy. That, in turn, led to an overreliance on other teams to take away points and finish the job the Titans couldn’t. As Barosso put it, “That’s a recipe for losing.”
And that recipe followed the script. More on that in a moment.
There was talent there across the board. But where was that talent when it mattered?
Barosso wasn’t sure. But he was going to find out. And if that meant becoming an earworm to his charges like an overplayed song on the radio, well. … “Finishing is the theme to the season. We have to finish the job,” Barosso said. “For us, we have to finish to win championships. Last year, we went into the (Big West) Conference as favorites, the first time that ever happened on the men’s side and we didn’t finish the job. All year, that’s been our thing: We have to finish the job.
“When you looked at our indoor races, there were good times and good performances, but when we got in close races, we’d beat ourselves by tightening up and not finishing our race plans. Mentally, we’d throw out our race plans and not execute what we’d do at practice.”
All of that neatly explains how Cal Poly threw out the Titans’ chances for a four-peat as men’s Big West champions last year. After winning the conference title in 2021, 2022 and 2023, Fullerton finished 17 points behind Cal Poly last year. That would have been the Titans’ seventh conference crown in the past eight years.
“If we did what we were supposed to do and finished the races, we would have been fine. We beat ourselves,” Barosso said.
Now, Barosso looks around at the talent at his disposal and his finishing message resonates louder and louder. That’s because by his own admission, he’s looking at the most talent he’s had in his four seasons running the Fullerton program. At every meet over the first month of the season, someone is racking up a mark that is top three, top five, top seven, top 10 in program history.
“We’re stronger in every event this year, top to bottom,” Barosso said. “On our throw squad last year, we had one guy score consistently. Now, there are four to five potential points scorers. We’ve brought in heavy hitters in middle and long distance. We’re looking better all the way around.”
There’s Dossman, who broke his own school record in the 200 in the season’s first meet: the Ben Brown Invitational at CSF in early March. Last week, Dossman showed that speed travels, breaking it again at the Texas Relays when he covered the distance in 20.56 seconds. Earlier that day, he clocked 10.16 seconds in the 100 that would have broken another record, had it not been wind-aided.
Dossman anchored a 4×100 relay team that finished third at the Texas Relays. Their 39.56 time was the second-fastest in school history.
There’s middle-distance standout Luke Hitchcock, who set the program record in the 800 at the UC Irvine Challenge Cup in mid-March, finishing second to UC Irvine’s Angel Cordero in 1:49.36. A week later at UCLA’s Legends Classic, Hitchcock ran the second-fastest 1,500 time in program history (3:44.52).
There are the aforementioned throwers: Brayden Bitter, Hawkin Miller and Kyler Headley.
There’s Carter Birade, who missed all but two meets last year due to various injuries. He won the Legends Classic 100 in 10.50, giving the Titans’ already deep sprinter room – one that includes Dossman, Dominic Gates, John Clifford (the 2023 Co-Big West Track Athlete of the Year) and Maleik Pabon – another option. Birade also runs the 110 hurdles.
And speaking of the 110 hurdles – along with several other events – there’s Abel Jordan. One of the most singularly talented athletes in program history, the native of Madrid, Spain, was the 2024 Big West Men’s Track Athlete of the Year after winning the 100 at the Big West Championships in a school-record 10.19 seconds, finishing second in the 110 hurdles (13.76) and helping the Titans win the 4×100 relay. Jordan broke three school records last year: the 100, 110 hurdles and the 4×100 relay.
During the just-completed indoor season, Jordan qualified for the NCAA Championships, broke the European U23 record in the 60 meters (6.54) and broke the Spanish U23 record in the 60-meter hurdles (7.53). He also broke the CSF 60-meter hurdles record (7.59) at the New Mexico Collegiate Classic.
“He was typically taking it easy his first two years because he wasn’t used to this kind of a workout schedule,” said Barosso, who is resting Jordan during the early part of the season due to his indoor-season success. “Now that he’s bigger and stronger, he can absorb more work and it’s paying off for him.”
Led by another international presence, the women’s team is also seeing some payoff as it chases its first conference title since 2019. That’s Canadian Ashley Odiase, who helped her national team finish third in the 4×100 relay at the World Athletics U20 Championships last August. She earned a bronze medal in the Canadian U20 Championships in the 200. Barosso said Odiase came back injured from the Worlds, leading him to redshirt her for the indoor season.
There’s freshman Emma Samvelian, who smacked Barosso’s gob with her unique combination of events: the pole vault, discus and shot put. Barosso said he didn’t know what events to send her out in, so he opted for the pole vault and shot put. She set the school record in the indoor pole vault and scored points in the shot during the indoor season.
There’s Jahzara Davis, the runner-up at last year’s Big West Championships in the 100 hurdles (13.70) and an NCAA West Preliminaries qualifier. She anchored the Titans’ winning 4X100 relay team at the Challenge Cup.
“She’s everything for us,” Barosso said.
And there’s sprinter Arionn Livingston, who finished third in the 400 at the Texas Relays with the sixth-best mark in school history (54.34). Barosso singled her out for her “crazy improvement” in that event and the 200.
As he ponders how to maximize all of this talent in his fourth season after taking over for longtime coach John Elders, Barosso finds himself preaching patience in one hand and an urgency to finish in the other. He’s learning that taking a more proactive approach in communicating the team’s actual mission and getting everyone to understand what that mission is – winning conference championships and getting to nationals – is his part of the finishing touch.
“I’ve learned a lot of patience and that you can never communicate too much,” he said. “You learn each student is different. You learn how to coach everyone individually, but as a whole group, which is contradictory. You’re managing personalities.
“I always wanted this job at Fullerton. It’s been a dream, and I need to make sure I can keep this dream of bringing Fullerton onto the national stage, where I think we can be.”
