SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (Mar. 26, 2022) – The Caltech men's and women's track and field teams traveled up the coast for spring break to compete in the Westmont Collegiate Classic on Saturday. Both men's and women's teams set new personal records (PR) as well as a season best in the Men's 4x400m Relay.
Leading the Beavers in the Men's 200m race was freshman Josh Saha (Rye, N.Y. / Hackley School) who placed 1st in his heat and 9th overall with a time of 23.34. Senior Jerome Seebeck (Chicago, Ill. / Walter Payton College Prep) and freshman Cason Shepard(Vancouver, Wash. / Union) followed close behind with times of 23.51 and 23.54 to place 11th and 12th, respectively. Junior Malik Paulino (Little Elm, Texas / Little Elm) placed 18th overall with a final time of 23.91, breaking his previous PR of 23.99 set at Pomona-Pitzer All-Comers. Placing 21st with a time of 24.42 was freshman Thierno Diallo (The Bronx, N.Y. / Loomis Chaffee School), who also broke his previous PR of 24.63 set at SCIAC Multi Dual #1. Junior Nate Lopez (Jurupa Valley, Calif. / Patriot) finished out the event with a time of 25.07, placing 3rd in his heat and 22nd overall.
The Men's 400m event saw a similar lineup from the Beavers. Saha led his team once again through a 51.48 run, placing 6th overall and breaking his previous PR of 52.71 set at Pomona-Pitzer All-Comers. Freshman Roy Jiang (Vancouver, B.C. / Southridge School) placed 3rd in his heat and 8th overall with a time of 51.53 that broke his previous PR of 52.52 set at SCIAC Multi Dual #1. Placing 11th and 12th yet again was Seebeck and Shepard with their respective times of 52.70 and 53.04. Moreover, Shepard's performance broke his previous PR of 54.66 set at Pomona-Pitzer All-Comers. Diallo and Lopez finished out the race for the Beavers, placing 13th and 15th with times of 53.08 and 55.84, respectively.
Continuing to set new records, almost every Beaver competing in the Men's 800m or 1500m event broke their PRs set earlier in the season. Sophomore Kyle Lethander (Dayton, Ohio / Oakwood) finished the 800m race with a time of 2:03.61, placing 16th overall and breaking his old PR of 2:10.52 set at SCIAC Multi Dual #1. In the 1500m event, freshman Rohun Agrawal (Cupertino, Calif. / Monta Vista) placed 4th overall with a time of 4:00.83 which is now Caltech's fourth-ranking time for this event. Also competing in the 1500m was freshmen Jonathan Bennett (Englewood, Colo. / Kent Denver School), Miles Jones (San Diego, Calif. / Rancho Bernardo), and Thomas MacLean (Redding, Calif. / Shasta). Bennett finished 8th in his heat and 24th overall with a time of 4:18.82, while Jones placed 27th overall and set a new PR of 4:20.54. MacLean placed 29th while setting a new PR of 4:25.33.
In the Men's 5000m event, the Beavers took 5th, 6th and 7th place. Junior Julen Lujambio (Middletown, Conn. / Xavier) placed 5th with a time of 17:09.97, while sophomore Jordan Osby (Brea, Calif. / Brea Olinda) and senior Gaurav Phanse (Fremont, Calif. / Dublin) placed 6th and 7th with their respective times of 18:20.16 and 18:56.17.
Finishing out the track events for the men's team was Paulino, Jiang, Bennett, and Stephen Ebaseh-Onofa (Edinburg, Tesxas / Robert Vela) in the Men's 4x400m Relay. The quartet placed 5th with a final time of 3:31.72, a new season's best for the Beavers.
Freshmen Daniel Amelinez-Robles (Madison, Wisc. / James Madison Memorial) and Lucas Lanzendorf (Leominster, Mass. / Massachusetts Academy of Math and Science) represented the Beavers in the men's field events. In Shot Put, Amelinez-Robles placed 10th with a throw of 11.18m, while Lanzendorf placed 12th and set a new PR at 10.24m. Amelinez-Robles later placed 6th in the men's discus with a throw of 37.60m, while Lanzendorf's 23.78m throw landed him in 18th place. Finishing out the field events with hammer throw, Amelinez-Robles placed 12th with his 26.99m throw, and Lanzendorf finished close behind in 13th with a 20.59m throw.
In the Women's 100m and 200m events, freshmen Isabela Ceniceros (Mukilteo, Wash. / Kamiak) and Lily Randall (Astoria, Ore. / Astoria) competed for the Beavers. Ceniceros finished 12th in the 100m event with a time of 13.96, and later set a new PR of 27.58 after finishing 13th in the 200m event. Randall also competed in the 200m dash, placing 10th with a time of 27.58 that now ranks 8th on the Caltech leader board.
The meet continued with the Women's 800m and 1500m runs. Sophomore Alex Burr (Chicago, Ill. / Whitney Young) placed 9th overall in the 800m with a time of 2:45.95. Burr later competed in the 1500m event, finishing with a time of 5:23.14 to break their previous PR of 5:34.12 set at the Oxy Distance Carnival. Also competing in the 1500m race was junior Lauren Garriques (Lake Forest, Ill. / Lake Forest) and freshman Sophia Dalfonzo (Fair Haven, N.J. / Biotechnology & Rumson-Fair Regional). Garriques placed 16th overall, setting a new PR of 5:04.24 that now ranks 10th on the Caltech leader board. Dalfonzo followed close behind and took 19th place with a 5:05.92 finish, breaking her previous PR of 5:08.00 set at SCIAC Multi Dual #1.
In the field events, sophomore Meg Robertson (Nashville, Tenn. / Harpeth Hall School), freshman Rucheng Pan (Brookfield, Wisc. / Brookfield East), and freshman Emily Hu (Vancouver, B.C. / Crofton House School) represented the Beavers. In women's shot put, Robertson took 10th place with a 9.90m throw that now ranks 5 on the Caltech leader board under her own fourth-ranked throw of 9.97m. Pan and Hu finished 15th and 17th with their respective throws of 8.25m and 7.02m. In discus, Robertson led the Beavers in 7th place with a throw of 32.73m that ranks 8th on the Caltech leader board. Hu placed 14th, recording a 24.48m throw that broke her previous PR of 23.81m set at SCIAC Multi Dual #1. Placing 15th, Pan recorded a 22.43m throw and broke her previous PR of 21.51m, which was also set at SCIAC Multi Dual #1. Closing out the field events, Robertson placed 4th in discus with a 37.07m throw that now ranks fourth on Caltech's leader board, while Pan broke another PR with her 12th place throw of 20.98m.
In returning from spring break, the Beavers will head to Occidental College next Saturday, April 2, for SCIAC Multi Dual #2. Visit GoCaltech.com for the meet's livestream, live stats and results.
