PASADENA, Calif. — Coming off a pair of historically successful seasons, the Caltech women's and men's cross country programs will add a number of new Beavers in 2023.
The first-years will join a solid group of returners from both teams as the two squads look to top their phenomenal 2022 campaigns. Last fall, the women's squad tied the program's highest finish ever at the SCIAC Championships, finishing third, before earning its highest finish in school history at NCAA West Regionals, finishing fifth. The men's team posted its strongest finish at the SCIAC Championships in recent history — placing fifth — before the team recorded its fastest average 8K time in school history, averaging 26:04 at the NCAA West Regional.
Head cross country coach
Kelli Blake believes these newcomers will boost what is an already impressive group of runners.
"I am so excited about this group of first year students," said Blake. "They are a talented group that will be a lot of fun to coach. I can recall meeting each one of them and feeling like they would bring so much to our strong cross country team culture, because of their love of running and their love of being part of a team. Each of them had great options in their college search process, but I am very happy that they chose to continue athletic and academic journeys at Caltech."
Meet the incoming Beavers below:
Women:
Zara Kanold-Tso
Bestheda, Md. / Winston Churchill
Kanold-Tso will bring a special sort of experience to the program — in addition to a quick 5K (20:55) and 2-mile (12:26), the rising first-year comes to the Caltech with marathon experience, running a 3:42:44 at the 2021 Philadelphia Marathon to finish sixth in her age group. The distance specialist finished in the top-30 at the 2022 MOCO County Championship and placed in the top-fifty at the 2022 Maryland State Meet (4A Region) in addition to helping her team to a slew of regional championships between 2020 and 2022. Academically, Kanold-Tso pre-published a co-written paper in Biorxiv after interning at the NIH Neuroscience Lab in the division of Critical Brain Dynamics; she has also published scientific diagrams in Science Mag, JARO and ENeuro. She additionally was a member of the Engineering Honor Society, Mu Alpha Theta, Science National Honor Society and English National Honor Society.
Layla Adeli
Pacific Palisades, Calif. / Palisades Charter
Adeli joins the roster with a number of high achievements in both the world of athletics and academia. The rising first-year finished in the top-15 at the LA City Section CIF XC Finals before qualifying and competing at both the CIF City Section Finals and State Championships. The Southern California native comes to Caltech with some impressive personal records, including a 2:33 in the 800-meters and 5:21 in the 1600-meters. Outside of running, Adeli has published a research paper on Nanotechnology in Cancer Therapy and was granted the Rose Gilbert Foundation's Scholar-Athlete Award. Additionally, the first-year was recognized as a California Scholarship Federation seal bearer and was a member of the National Honor Society.
Men:
Ryan Fortin
Londonderry, N.H. / Londonderry
After notching PRs of 4:29 in the 1600-meters, 9:29 in the 3200-meters and 15:49 in the 5K, the men's team will look for Fortin to make an immediate impact in 2023. In high school, Fortin nabbed runner-up finishes in the state's D1 Cross Country Championship as well as in New Hampshire's D1 Indoor 3000-meter championship; additionally, he helped his team to a victory in the 4x800m at the NH D1 Track Relay Meet and at the NH Meet of Champions. Voted All-New England in cross country and All-State in both cross country and track & field, Fortin earned NHIAA Scholastic and 3-Sport Athlete distinction. He leaves Loundonderry third all-time in the 3200m. For his work in the classroom, Fortin won the Jae S. Lim Science Award, RPI Medal for Math and Science and the Blue Star Lancers Award, among others. He served as the co-founder and president of his school's Science National Honor Society chapter and was a member of the town environmental committee.
Richard Hoffman
Simi Valley, Calif. / Westlake
Hoffman comes to the Institute after an immensely successful high school career in cross country and on the track. A team captain at Westlake, Hoffman achieved personal bests of 16:32 in the 5K and 2:02.64 in the 800-meters and earned CIF-SS Regional Athlete recognition in addition to being named a Varsity Scholar-Athlete. Outside of athletics, Hoffman has conducted impressive research as a high school scholar; beginning in June 2022, the California native worked a six-week internship in the CU Boulder Intelligent Robotics Laboratory alongside the Autonomous Robotics and Perception Group. While there, Hoffman labeled data and created programs to calibrate LIDAR with image data using a neural network. He also designed wiring for model cars used for autonomous systems research and controlled driving functions of the car while recording data, among other duties. Additionally, he has volunteered with Voice of Calling to teach elementary students the basics of Python, and has created his own website to connect music volunteers with event organizers. In June 2021, he conducted research at UC Santa Barbara working on real-time telescope observation.
Colin La
Potomac, Md. / Winston Churchill
La joins the roster with a plethora of achievements from his four years in high school. A team MVP, Churchill HS Player of the Month, and winner of the Andy White Coaches' Award for Outstanding Distinction, La helped lead his squad to a runner-up finish at the Maryland State 4A Championships. Entering Caltech, the first-year boasts personal-records of 16:18 in the 5K, 33:37 in the 10K and 9:57 in the 3200-meters. Outside of running, the Maryland native has served as the program representative at the MCPS Student Athlete Leadership Council, has interned in quantum computing at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab, was treasurer of the Science National Honor Society, and has taught Chinese at Westmoreland Academia. He won the Governor's Merit Scholastic Award and was an AP Scholar with Distinction.
Nathan Jay
Fremont, Calif. / John F. Kennedy
A California native, Jay comes to Pasadena with several fast times, including a personal record of 4:29 in the 1600-meters and a PR of 9:56 in the 3200-meters. He currently interns at the Chabot Space & Science Center, a nonprofit museum and learning center in Oakland, where he served as a volunteer for three years explaining science demonstrations to the public. Now an intern, Jay manages volunteers and helps with various activities, such as soldering, fixing rovers and running planetarium shows. As part of the Astronomy Team, he has done computational work with meteorite datasets and plans to explore computational astronomy further in his academic career. Beyond his work at Chabot, Jay is a part of the Aspiring Scholars Direct Research Program, where he uses CERN particle collision data and machine learning techniques to identify and classify particle jets. Additionally, he has earned the Mathematics Engineering Science Achievement for building a functional balsa wood glider, an Arduino-based heartbeat monitor, and a plant watering system, while serving as co-president of his school's branch. He also has served as Physics lead at his school's Tech Club.
The group looks to top the immense success of last season with the additions of these incoming Beavers. The newcomers will look to continue the recent success of the program as they compete in a highly competitive conference and region.
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