Freshman Tim Krasnoperov (Pasadena, Calif. / Polytechnic) made the podium with a third-place finish in the discus and the Caltech women’s track & field team earned its first point at the SCIAC Championships since 2014 at Pomona-Pitzer Colleges this weekend. Results The rookie opened the event with the second-furthest throw in the field and added […]
Freshman Tim Krasnoperov (Pasadena, Calif. / Polytechnic) made the podium with a third-place finish in the discus and the Caltech women’s track & field team earned its first point at the SCIAC Championships since 2014 at Pomona-Pitzer Colleges this weekend.
The rookie opened the event with the second-furthest throw in the field and added nearly another meter on his penultimate attempt, but was passed by a classmate from Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges who launched a throw more than two meters further than his opening mark. With one final attempt remaining and the podium already sewn up, Krasnoperov gave the final throw everything he had, but it went just wide right for a sector foul. Still an All-Conference honoree, he went on to place 11th in the hammer throw later that day and 10th in both the shot put and javelin, in which he made his third program Top-10 list with a throw of 150 feet, one inch to rank seventh.
Sophomore Michelle Marasigan (Elk Grove Village, Ill. / James B. Conant) scored the two points for the women’s team thanks to her seventh-place finish in the 800-meter run. Having qualified for the finals in the eighth and final spot, albeit 2.5 seconds clear of ninth, she ended up in a two-woman battle behind the main pack and held on to double her projected point total. The 1.5-second drop moved her up to fifth on the program’s all-time list and just two seconds shy of the record.
The majority of the team either recorded a season-best time or improve on their preliminary seeding over the weekend, with a select few also cracking or moving up the program Top-10 lists. Freshman Sam Blazes (Seattle, Wash. / Sidwell Friends) rode a strong opening in the 3,000m steeplechase to a 10th-place finish and 14-second time drop, debuting at ninth in program history at 10:18.14. Classmate Alexa Lauinger (Ortonville, Mich. / Brandon) continued her upward trajectory with a nine-foot improvement in the hammer throw, moving up a spot to fifth all-time at 92 feet, seven inches, and added two feet to her best javelin mark. Sophomore Michael Hashe (Plano, Texas / Texas Acad. of Math & Science) also debuted with the eighth-fastest 10k of any Beaver in a superlative display that saw him nearly average his 5k PR at twice the distance.
Rookie Nicole Feng (Bethany, Conn. / Amity Reg’l) enjoyed the largest time drops of the weekend in the 800m (eight seconds) and 1500m (seven seconds), while the men’s mid-distance freshmen turned in exceptional performances. Tommy Alford (Dublin, Ohio / Dublin Coffman) recorded his first sub-2:00 800m time at 1:59.64, while Tanner Moore (Roseville, Calif. / Oakmont) and Simon Ricci (Chicago, Ill. / Latin School of Chicago) traded seeds in the 1500m at 15th and 16th, respectively, with Moore shaving a whopping four seconds to clock a 4:07.81. Junior Chris Haack (New York, N.Y. / The Browning School) also trimmed a little over a second from his 1500m time.
Seniors Lucy Chen (Boonton Township, N.J. / Mountain Lakes) and Alison Lui (Osprey, Fla. / Pine View) benefitted significantly from wind assistance in the sprints in recording personal bests, dropping .12 and .32, respectively, in the 100-meter dash along with .04 and .29 in the 200m. Junior Alex Bourzutschky (Potomac, Md. / Montgomery Blair) and freshman Alex Lettenberger (Glen Ellyn, Ill. / Glenbard West) received no such assistance but still shaved .31 and .59, respectively, in the 200m. Sophomore Muskaan Goyal (Apple Valley, Minn. / Eastview) imrpoved her best mark in the hammer, discus and javelin and classmate Rohan Choudhury (Cupertino, Calif. / Monta Vista) capped the meet’s first day with a 10-th-place finish in the 10k, having led the second pack of runners through the opening few laps before fading after the midway point.
Head Coach Ben Raphelson and a select few Beavers will continue to train over the next few weeks to compete in a handful of Last-Chance invitationals with an eye toward significant personal bests or program Top-10 marks.
