Newville, Pa. — The Caltech men's and women's cross country teams competed at the NCAA DIII Pre-National Meet on Saturday morning in a pair of important races before the postseason. The Beavers posted strong finishes in both races as they they tackled the same course to be used at the NCAA National Championships this November. The program hopes to send Beavers to the National Meet for the third year in a row after qualifying one student-athlete in 2021 and two in 2022.

The men's race saw a phenomenal performance out of junior Rohun Agrawal, who led the charge for the Beavers with an exceptional 22nd place performance out of 378 total competitors. The Cupertino native ran a strong race, crossing the 1-mile mark in 71st before moving up to 36th at the 5K and ultimately crossing the line in 22nd. The standout recorded a time of 25:25.8 for the 8000-meter-long course.

Senior Joey Litvin finished second for the Beavers with a solid 71st place performance; the 2022 Nationals qualifier logged a time of 26:00.5.

Junior Thomas MacLean came in third for the squad and 173rd overall with a time of 27:10.2. First-year Ryan Fortin finished fourth for the team (199th, 27:25.7) and junior Miles Jones rounded out the Beavers' top-five moments later (205th, 27:28.9).

Colin La finished sixth for the program (221st, 27:40.8).

As a group, the team scored 19th place among the 38 teams competing; they finished just four places behind the nationally-ranked Hope College.

The women also put up a noteworthy performance as they tackled a 6000-meter-long course. Leading the way for the Beavers was sophomore Gigi Pistilli, who earned 111th place out of 366 total athletes. The star earned 99 team points; she crossed the line at 23:50.7. Pistilli ran a tactical race as she passed the 1-mile marker in 159th before picking off other runners and moving up 48 places.

Junior Sophie Dalfonzo came across the line just a few moments after Pistilli; the accomplished New Jersey native scooped 126th place with a time of 23:57.4.

Senior Katy Chu earned 135th place (24:04.5) in the third spot while sophomore Elisa Grillo finished in 169th (24:34.3) as the Beavers' fourth. First-year Zara Kanold-Tso rounded out the top-five for the squad, earning 300th with a time of 27:02.3. First-year Layla Adeli finished just 1.1 seconds later to earn 302nd.

The top-five earned 23rd place out of 39 qualifying teams.

Head coach Kelli Blake was pleased with how both groups performed.

"Everyone ran with grit," said Blake. "This was a super challenging course and a stacked field and I felt like both the men and women really made the most of the opportunity. We got to compete against DIII teams that we haven't ever competed against and I think proved to ourselves that, going forward, we should have big goals."

"The team had a lot of fun and bonded in a way that only comes from spending three days together."

Next up for both the men and women is the SCIAC Championship Meet on Oct. 28 in Riverside, California. Action is slated to begin at 8:30 a.m. Stay tuned to gocaltech.com for more information.

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