CLAREMONT, Calif. (Nov. 13, 2021) – Caltech women's cross country graduate student Margaret Trautner (Houston, Texas / MIT) qualified for the NCAA Championships with an incredible ninth-place finish at the NCAA West Regional hosted by Occidental College on the campus of Pomona-Pitzer Colleges on Saturday morning.

Trautner, a two-time All-America in track & field at MIT, needed only to place among the first seven finishers from non-qualifying teams to punch a ticket to her first cross country national championship and left no doubt as the third finisher from a non-Claremont school, running a blazing 22:28.4 that beat out her 11^th-place SCIAC finish in 22:31.7 to clear the qualifying bar by 17 seconds and less than 30 behind regional champion Genevieve DiBari of Pomona-Pitzer Colleges. Her appearance at nationals next weekend will mark the first time Caltech has sent a runner to the championships in consecutive seasons since Hall of Honor inductee and SCIAC Sportsmanship Award namesake Celia Peterson '81 after Claire Hu qualified in 2019.

The women's team placed eighth in the region and fourth among SCIAC teams, scoring 230 points but narrowly being edged out by the University of Redlands by 11 points while both finished well behind sixth-place Trinity (Texas) University at 171. Freshman Sophia Dalfonzo (Fairhaven, N.J. / Rumson Regional) came in 25^th place to earn All-Region honors and register Caltech's best top-two performance, beating out 2019's ninth and 28^th by Hu and Molly Crotteau '20. Freshman Isabella Zuniga ran very well not far behind, improving by 11 seconds on her SCIAC performance for a 39^th-place finish. Sophomore Katy Chu (Los Gatos, Calif. / Saint Francis) scored in fourth while senior Alex Bardon (Boston, Mass. / Winsor School) also ran into the scoring lineup. Rookie Sydney Vernon (Bellevue, Wash. / Eastside Prep) trimmed four seconds from her SCIAC time as the seventh runner on the squad.

The men's team placed 12^th overall and moved up a spot from its SCIAC result to finish sixth among conference competitors, scoring 320 points that left the Beavers a mere four shy of 11^th. Sophomore Joey Litvin (Ardmore, Pa. / Lower Merion) again led the pack to place 40^th overall – three spots ahead of his SCIAC finish behind a highly impressive 38-second improvement. Freshman Rohun Agrawal (Cupertino, Calif. / Monta Vista), still working his way back from some missed time midway through the season, registered a 51^st-place finish on a massive one-minute drop, while junior Kyle Piper (Lafayette, Colo. / Centaurus) also shaved 17 seconds to place 80^th but came in just two spots behind teammate sophomore Kyle Lethander (Oakwood, Ohio / Oakwood) in 78^th. Senior Kellen Rodriguez (Fairmont, Minn. / Fairmont) closed out the scorers in 88^th place with a 15-second drop.

While the team portion of the season has now concluded, Head Coach Kelli Blake and Trautner will head to the NCAA Championships this Saturday in Louisville, Ky. eyeing Hu's 2019 finish of 126^th.