CLAREMONT, Calif. (Oct. 8, 2022) – Caltech Cross Country raced among a field of 14 programs Saturday morning in the familiar Pomona-Pitzer Invitational, in what was the final warm-up meet before the upcoming SCIAC Championships.  The cool morning provided pleasant running conditions for the hundreds of competitors along the looping Pomona College campus course.
 
Junior Joey Litvin (Ardmore, Pa. / Lower Merion) led the men's squad in the Men's 8k race, finishing 22nd overall out of 163 finishers with a time of 25:51.2. Sophomore Rohun Agrawal (Cupertino, Calif. / Monta Vista), senior Guarav Phanse (Fremont, Calif. / Dublin), junior and Caltech tennis crossover Kyle McCandless (Lexington, Mass. / Lexington), junior Patrick Martinez (Fullerton, Calif. / Troy), freshman Jacob Wolmer (Tenafly, N.J. / Tenafly), and senior Adnan Contractor (Watchung, N.J. / Watchung Hills Regional) rounded out Caltech's top seven finishers, giving the team a 27:20 average and besting SCIAC rivals California Lutheran University and Occidental College.
 
Graduate student Margaret Trautner (Houston, Texas / MIT) led the women's team in the Women's 6k, finishing 32nd overall out of 144. Following Trautner in order of finish were first-year Gigi Pistilli (Portola Valley, Calif. / Woodside), sophomore Sophia Dalfonzo (Fairhaven, N.J. / Rumson Regional), grad student Maria Carilli (Socorro, N.M. / Univ. of Colorado Boulder), rookie Elisa Grillo (Cypress, Texas / Bridgeland), senior Lauren Garriques (Lake Forest, Ill. / Lake Forest) and sophomore Isabella Zuniga (San Juan Capistrano, Calif. / San Juan Hills), with the top seven averaging 23:56 ahead of Occidental, University of La Verne and Cal Lutheran's teams.
 
"I feel really optimistic about how we've been going about training and racing. I think everyone is in a good spot," Head Coach Kelli Blake said. "Really happy to see Joey's hard work pay off with a good race."
 
Up next for the Beavers will be the SCIAC Cross Country Championships on Saturday, Oct. 29 at Prado Park in Chino, Calif., with the men's race scheduled for 9 a.m. and the women starting at 9:45 a.m.