Caltech Track & Field Smashes Team Records at Pomona-Pitzer Invitational

As Caltech Track & Field ventured over to Claremont for the Pomona-Pitzer Invitational this past Saturday, a myriad of new personal bests were set as well as two program records in the men’s javelin and the women’s 4x100m.

Junior Luke Lamitina (Pittsburgh, Penn. / Winchester Thurston), who recently joined Track & Field this season after playing baseball in his first and sophomore years, put his arm to use as he shattered the school’s javelin record. Measuring in at 176′ 3″ (53.73m), his throw catapulted him to the front of the list by a full 6′ 8″ (2.03m).

“Coming in I knew that I had built good arm strength from baseball, but converting that power to the javelin mechanics was a big challenge.” Lamitina remarked. “The biggest factor to overcome this was the amazing coaching and teammates that have helped me navigate this transition. At this meet, I found that there was a lot of high-level competition, and it helped to really push me over the edge in that moment.”

Lamitina was not the only thrower to find success on the day, as his fellow teammates seniors Daniel Amelinez-Robles (Madison, Wis. / James Madison Memorial), Ezra Johnson (Columbus, Ohio / Columbus Academy) and sophomore Colin Gray (High Point, N.C. / Early College at Guilford) each achieved high marks in the discus as well.

Amelinez-Robles snagged 11th place out of 52 participants by throwing for 43.14m (141′ 6″), also laying claim to Caltech’s seventh best discus distance of all time. Johnson, who holds the current school record, also finished the day throwing his season-best 40.35m (132′ 4″). Gray set a new personal record for the event on the day, letting it fly 31.15m (102′ 2″). Amelinez-Robles also rose above much of the competition in the hammer throw on Saturday, achieving eighth place out of 37 and throwing it 47.78m (156′ 9″).

As for the women’s team, Emily Hu (Vancouver, B.C. / Crofton House) cracked into the top 10 in the hammer throw event, she finished ninth out of the 48 competitors with a 41.42m throw. Clara Stevens (Vienna / Flint Hill School) improved on her throw with a .03-second personal best. Hu and Stevens respectively have the third and fourth longest hammer throws in Caltech history.

Heading into sprints, the men’s team crossed the finish line with a few notable personal and team bests. In the 100m, senior Roy Jiang (Vancouver, B.C. / Southridge School) clocked in at 11.44 seconds. His speed carried him to a new personal best, and marked him down as the fifth fastest Beaver at the event ever. Fellow senior Thierno Diallo (New York, N.Y. / Loomis Chafee School) tallied a personal best of his own in the 400m, completing the race in 52.67 seconds (an improvement of 0.41 seconds).

From one 400m event to another, the Beavers 4x400m team came away with yet another time for the school’s record books as they combined for a 3:26.74 finish, being the third fastest bunch from Pasadena. The team consisted of Jiang, Diallo, and sophomores Richard Hoffman (Simi Valley, Calif. / Westlake) and Tyler Gatewood (Corpus Christi, Texas / W.B. Ray).

The women’s sprinters saw much success of their own, including an improvement on a program record that was set this season.

Three Caltech sprinters earned new personal bests in the 100m event. Isabella Ceniceros (Mukilteo, Wash. / Kamiak) finished with a time of 13.22 seconds, smashing her personal best by 0.5 seconds and jumping up in the school’s record books from ninth to third. First-years Kyra Phaychanpheng (Chino Hills, Calif. / Chino Hills) and Maryan Malkosh (Laguna Niguel, Calif. / Dana Hills) improved their personal bests by about -0.1 seconds, with Malkosh also tying her personal best in the 200m event. Ivy Brainard (Charlotte, N.C. / Providence Day), the sophomore who currently holds the Caltech school record for the fastest 100m time, led the sprinters with a time of 13.10 seconds. Brainard also ran in the 200m later in the day, finishing with a time of 26.81 seconds, placing her as the second fastest Beaver ever in the event.

The 4x100m relay team set a new school record with a time of 50.30 seconds.

Senior Lily Randall (Astoria, Ore. / Astoria), sophomores Brainard and Isha Goswami (Saratoga, Calif. / Saratoga), and senior Ceniceros, combined to beat the former record, which was also set earlier this month, by -1.32 seconds.

Goswami ran a 59.74 in the 400m event, improving on her personal best by about .7 seconds. Goswami is the third sprinter in school history to finish the 400m event with a time less than one minute.

In the men’s 1500m, senior Miles Jones (San Diego, Calif. / Rancho Bernardo) ran his first ever sub-four-minute 1500m, crossing the finish at 3:59.85 and placing 33rd out of 117 runners. This race improved his personal best by approximately five seconds and registers as the fifth best 1500m time in Caltech history. Senior Thomas MacClean (Redding, Calif. / Shasta) and junior Jacob Wolmer Tenafly, N.J. Tenafly) also participated in the 1500m, finishing not long after Jones at 4:10.26 and 4:22.24, respectively. MacClean improved his personal best by close to seven seconds, and Wolmer by close to six seconds.

In the 3000m steeplechase, first year Stephen Goehringer (Wellesley, Mass. / Wellesley) placed fourth on the day out of 16 competitors, completing the race after 9:49.53 minutes. On top of a top five placement at the meet, Goehringer improved his personal best by 22 seconds and is now listed in second place all time in Caltech’s school record books.

Women’s intermediate and distance runners continued the trend of setting new personal bests.

In the 800m first year Hypatia Hamkins (New York, N.Y. / The Brearley School) recorded her finish after 2:25.53 minutes. On top of placing 35th of 71. She was joined in the event by fellow first year Jennifer Cruden (Los Altos, Calif. / Los Altos) who ran a personal best 2:33.57 minute time. Raquel Lample (Encino, Calif. / Notre Dame HS) also set a new personal best as she improved on her time by about -3.5 seconds and surprisingly tied teammate Elisa Grillo (Cypress, Texas  / Bridgeland) despite racing in different heats. Both ran a 2:39.22 minute time.

Sophia Elam (Medford, Ore. / North Medford) and Camilla Power (Edmonds, Wash. / Saint James) finished with new personal bests in the 1500m event. Elam’s one second improvement was enough to pass her teammate for the fifth-fastest 1500 time in school history.

Lastly, the men’s jumpers showed strong consistency on the day.

High jumper Gatewood exited the day matching his season best, SCIAC-leading 2.00m (6′ 6.75″) height, and placing second out of 18 in the event.

Over at the pole vault, junior Aaban Syed (Laurel, Md. / North County) first years Brendan Rudberg (Shoreline, Wash. / Shorecrest) and Lucas Smith (Hailey, Idaho / Wood River) kept as a tight pack, each scoring within 0.15m (~6″) of each other. Rudberg and Syed ended the day reaching 4.30m (14′ 1.25″), with Rudberg reaching the height faster leading to a 10th and 13th place finish, respectively. Not far behind was Smith, reaching 4.15m (13′ 7.25″) and placing 15th out of 25 participants.

In triple jump, first year Alex Kumar hopped his way into fourth place all time for Caltech’s records with a 12.04m (39′ 6″) leap. His record jump rests just behind third place all time Siddhartha Shendrikar (Los Angeles, Calif. / New Roads School) who jumped for 11.91m (39′ 1″) on the day himself.