LAGUNA NIGUEL, Calif. — Head coach Kelli Blake and the Caltech Cross Country coaches earned 2023 SCIAC Men's Cross Country Coaching Staff of the Year honors, the conference announced on Monday.

Blake, assistant coach Wyatt Meyring and volunteer assistant coaches Anna Valentine and Lionel Montenegro received the prestigious recognition after the Caltech men posted an exceptional third-place finish at the SCIAC Championships this past Saturday.

The Caltech coaching staff also helped lead two Beavers to First Team All-SCIAC nods for finishing in the top-ten at the championship meet. Junior Rohun Agrawal nabbed runner-up among all 131 competitors while senior Joey Litvin placed tenth.

Notably, the squad beat out an impressive University of La Verne team, who ranked as high as No. 26 in the nation this season. The Beavers were predicted to finish fifth in the conference preseason poll back in August. The team's third place performance is the program's best finish in 41 years.

Blake was named head coach of the Beavers in August of 2021 and has led the men's program to an improved finish in every year of her tenure; the team placed seventh in 2021 before earning fifth in 2022 and now third in 2023. She has also led the women's team to a pair of record-third place finishes. The talented coach sent Caltech's Margaret Trautner to the NCAA National Championships in 2021 before helping Litvin and Trautner to the National Championships in 2022.

The Beavers will now focus on the NCAA West Regional Meet this Saturday, Nov. 11 at 11 a.m. in Riverside.

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