CLAREMONT, Calif. (Oct. 29, 2022) – The Caltech Women's Cross Country program wrapped up their 2022 conference season by participating in the SCIAC Championships on the Pomona-Pitzer course on Saturday. The women's team had a fantastic showing, finishing third with 96 points and tying the program's highest finish ever matching last year's effort. On this beautiful fall morning, the runners enjoyed ideal racing conditions as they made their way over the 6K course for women.
Caltech demonstrated the benefits of staying together as a pack, working together throughout the race. At the front, graduate student Margaret Trautner (Houston, Texas / MIT) continued to shine, finishing 13th in 22:52.6, followed closely by first year Gigi Pistilli (Portola Valley, Calif. / Woodside) who finished 15th in 23:01.4. Pistilli was followed closely by graduate student Maria Carilli (Socorro, N.M. Univ. of Colorado Boulder), who crossed the line in 23:04.8, a mere 3.4 seconds behind. The final runner of this top-group was sophomore Sophie Dalfonzo (Fairhaven, N.J./ Rumson Regional) who finished 18th in 23:07.0.
The next group of Beavers was spearheaded by freshman Elisa Grillo (Cypress, Texas / Bridgeland) who ran the course in 24:14.4, followed closely by Lauren Garriques (Lake Forest, Ill. / Lake Forest) in 24:22.4, and then junior Katy Chu (San Jose, Calif. / Saint Francis) in 25:00.4. Distancing herself a bit from her teammates outside the top seven was sophomore Isabella Zuniga (San Juan Capistrano, Calif. / San Juan Hills) who finished in 25:14.2 nearly a minute in front of graduate student Lauren Conger (Tucson, Ariz. / Cornell University), whose time of 26:11.9 was followed by a twosome who worked together in fellow senior Makena Rodriguez (Fairmont, Minn. / Fairmont) in 31:07.4 and freshman Frida Moreno (Thousand Oaks, Calif. / Thousand Oaks) 31:07.07.
The support demonstrated for each other was impressive as the Caltech women only finished behind the host Sagehens, as well as the #4 Nationally ranked Athenas of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges.
Next up for the Beavers is another opportunity to excel at Regionals followed by this year's National Championships. The West Regionals will take place on November 12, 2022, in Spokane Washington, while the 2022 NCAA Div. III Cross Country Championships will take place in Lansing, Michigan on Saturday, November 19th.
Full race information can be found here: https://www.tfrrs.org/results/xc/21157/2022_SCIAC_XC_Championships
