LANSING, Mich. – After months of training and preparation and following conference and regional championships, the 2022 cross country season culminated in the NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships. The top cross country teams and dozens of individual runners descended on Forest Akers Golf Course for the final race of the year, and for many, their intercollegiate careers.

By finishing among the top seven times at regionals by runners whose teams didn't qualify for Nationals, graduate student Margaret Trautner represented Caltech in the Women's 6K, followed by junior Joey Litvin running in the Men's 8K, each competing among nearly 300 of the best in Division III.

The weather conditions certainly added to the challenge of the biggest race of the year, with temperatures in the 20s and the course frequently turning the runners toward the persistent, bone-chilling winds, but the Beavers were undeterred and fought through the elements to make history for Caltech Cross Country.

For Trautner, it was her final race and her fourth national championship in four seasons wearing the orange and white, and her eighth including indoor and outdoor track & field. Finishing 147th in the 2021 National Championships, Trautner conserved her energy for the second half of the run, cruising with the middle of the pack through the first mile. She then passed 40 runners in the second mile and another 38 on her way to finishing in the 88th spot, one of the best performances in Caltech history.

"She ran really well," Head Coach Kelli Blake said, adding that Trautner had been battling an illness over the last two weeks.

Litvin held to a similar, conservative strategy in the first mile before plowing ahead in the second mile. Coach Blake said the snow on the ground, the traffic on the course and the number of fans in attendance obscured the mile markers from view, making pacing difficult as competitors wouldn't as easily know how much ground they'd already covered. After pushing through to the first 100, Litvin held on through the last couple kilometers to place 118th, the second-best finish in Caltech men's cross country program history and just the third Beaver ever to qualify on the men's side.
 

Blake, Litvin, and most of the rest of the cross country runners will be back in action on Friday, Feb. 3, 2023 as Track & Field season kicks off at the Ron Mann Classic hosted by Northern Arizona University.