CARLISLE, Pa. – Nearly 300 runners convened at Big Spring High School Saturday morning under exquisite conditions for the 2023 NCAA Division III Men's Cross Country National Championship, and Caltech's top Regionals finishers earned the honor to represent the Beavers at the grand finale.
32 programs qualified and sent their top seven competitors to battle for the team title, with the field filled out by 70 individual runners representing their schools by virtue of their performances at regional championships. Among the individuals were Caltech senior and repeat Nationals contender
Joey Litvin, and his teammate and junior standout
Rohun Agrawal.
The two Beavers paced themselves effectively, conserving energy for the critical final push through the 8K race. Indicative of the traffic on the course early on, the pair crossed the one-mile mark exactly one second apart, but also separated by 17 ranks. Then in the second mile, the Caltech duo passed dozens of opponents while maintaining their steady stride. The Beavers hit the two-mile mark with just over 10 minutes elapsed, Litvin pulling ahead 53 spots into 117
th and Agrawal just four seconds behind.
Agrawal continued his upward trend toward the 5k mark as he and Litvin reached five kilometers neck-and-neck at 109
th and 110
th, just under 16 minutes from the start and 0.2 seconds apart. The unrelenting course finished with a hilly final three kilometers, but Agrawal kept pressing and passed 21 more runners to claim 88
th place overall, 19
th among at-large competitors, with a 25:37.7 time; Litvin crossed after 25:56.3 in 137
th, firmly in the top half of Division III.
Rohun's finish ranks among the best in Caltech history just one year after
Margaret Trautner placed 88th in the 2022 NCAA Division III Women's Cross Country Championship;
Joey Litvin also competed in last year's championships and earned the
second-best finish in program history.
Head Coach
Kelli Blake and Caltech distance runners will be back in action this winter in Flagstaff, Arizona for the Ron Mann Classic indoor meet, beginning on Feb. 4, 2024.
