RIVERSIDE, Calif. – The Caltech cross country program competed in the 42nd UC Riverside Invitational Saturday morning and put up some impressive individual and team performances.
The men's team ran in the 8k Men Open race and finished in sixth place out of 19 teams, and third among the seven Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) programs present, posting a score of 172 with a 2:10.18 team time and a 26:03 average. Junior
Rohun Agrawal was the first Beaver to cross the finish line as the eighth finisher in a pack of 232, finishing in 25:12.9 for a 5:04.3 average mile time. He gained speed throughout the race, hitting his 2k split in 6:14.1, 4k in 6:07.0, and 7.5k in 5:59.6. Following Agrawal was first-year
Ryan Fortin, the 25th scorer and 39th finisher in 25:54.5, and then senior and NCAA Cross Country National Championship veteran
Joey Litvin scored 29th with a 25:59.4 time, also speeding up after each split. Rounding out the scoring finishers for the men in order were juniors
Miles Jones (51) and
Thomas MacLean (60), and seniors
Ryan Chan (102) and
Patrick Martinez (104).
And in the 5k Women Open event, Caltech's women's squad took ninth out of 21 programs with a score of 236, with a total time of 1:35.44 and a 19:08 average. Coming in first for the Beavers was junior
Sophia Dalfonzo, scoring 19th and finishing 20th overall out of 237 finishers in 18:30.2 for a 5:57.3 average mile. Following Dalfonzo was sophomore
Gigi Pistilli, scoring 26th after a 6:03.2 run, and senior
Lauren Garriques, scoring 36th in 6:06.6. Scoring behind them were senior
Katy Chu (68), sophomore
Elisa Grillo (87), and first-years
Layla Adeli (128) and
Zara Kanold-Tso (132).
"The team moved up great throughout the race," Head Coach
Kelli Blake said. "We have some work to do to close the gap between our fifth runners and the next group back, but overall I was very encouraged by today."
Coach Blake and the Beavers will be back at it next week on Saturday, Sep. 23 at
The Master's Invitational in Santa Clarita, Calif. Find more information as it becomes available at
https://gocaltech.com/xc
