At Caltech, student-athletes aren’t just competing—they are redefining what it means to balance intensity in both sports and academics. They exhibit not only commitment but a certain kind of mental toughness and passionate energy to their teams and to the Caltech community. Here’s the latest from Caltech Athletics, highlighting the records, rivalries, and relentless drive that define our teams. With the spring quarter underway, our Caltech athletics have achieved like never before. Let’s dive into the many accomplishments the spring sport beavers have to show off this year.

Tennis

Our women’s tennis team started off the season by bringing home four straight non-conference wins in a row. These beavers took down countless nationally ranked teams, including No. 33 Colby. The match was extremely exciting, with a result of 4-3. Caltech Women’s Tennis ended the season claiming the No. 28 spot in the latest ITA national team rankings. The beavers climbed as high as rank No. 16 during SCIAC conference play. Payal Patel reigned as the ITA No. 16 regional women’s singles player and brought home a Second Team All-SCIAC award, alongside Anika Arora. Both of these ladies played a crucial part in singles and doubles wins for the team. Standout freshman Carissa Gerung earned SCIAC Athlete of the Week honors, contributing greatly to the team’s success and anticipating more in years to come.

Men’s tennis also started the season hot with a five-win streak of their own, ending with a final record of 11-5. This relentless group defeated ranked conference teams, pulling through with huge upsets. Caltech finished the season in the national rankings in the No. 31 spot as a team, and made it to the SCIAC conference semifinals. Sophomore duo Tejas Ramare and Constantin Cedillo-Vayson de Pradenne and ranked as No. 6 regionally in doubles, with the latter also earning First Team All-SCIAC awards. A second successful doubles team, Andrew Zabelo and Eric He, are the regional No. 8 pair, with the former earning Second Team All-SCIAC recognition.

Track and Field

Caltech Track and Field has had a remarkable season, rounding out this week with the last meet at Redlands this Wednesday and Thursday. Our team has had immense success on both the Men’s and Women’s side. At the recent SCIAC Championships, the Men’s team scored a total of 31 points and the Women’s team scored a total of 22 points. In 2023, our teams scored 2 and 9 points respectively. Over the course of the 2024-25 season, eight school records have been broken by this exceptional group of student-athletes.

On the field side, the throws squad showed out in SCIAC championships, with nine throwers scoring and three podium finishers. Emily Hu, our star senior, earned the SCIAC Jennifer Stary Character Award and topped it off with a bronze medal in the hammer throw with a new personal best of 43.92m. Twin flame, Daniel Amelinez-Robles, also placed third in the men’s hammer competition with a huge toss of 49.43m. He also holds the school record in this event with a throw earlier this season marking 53.27m. Members of the men’s hammer squad, Ezra Johnson, Maxwell Braithwaite, Jadon Hale, Luke Lamitina, defied the odds and scored with 4th, 5th, 7th, and 8th place in the event. Ezra also scored in shot put, as did Sophia Steven. Rounding out the women’s hammer squad, myself (Kyra Phaychanpheng) and fellow first-year Clara Stevens, scored 6th and 7th place. In my pursuit of a successful side quest aside from basketball, I threw 39.10m for a second place finish and set a new school record in women’s discus. Most recently, Lamitina broke the school javelin record for the third time now with a throw of 59.48 at the APU Franson’s Last Chance meet.

Also on the field stands success within the pole vault and jumps squad. Caltech’s pole vault squad made a strong impression this season, with junior Aaban Syed and first-year Brendan Rudberg both flying over school record heights of 4.42m. This was done when it counted, placing 4th and 5th at SCIACs as well. The dynamic duo is chasing higher heights with the upcoming meet this week. Sophomore high jumper, Tyler Gatewood, holds a school record this season as well with a height of 2.00m.

Back on the track, one of Caltech’s fastest, Ivy Brainard, broke her own 100m record this year, with an outstanding time of 12.81 seconds. She also contributed to the women’s 4x100m record this year as well, alongside Isha Goswami, Lily Randall, and Bela Ceniceros. They ran a time of 50.43 seconds. Ivy and Isha added another program record together with first-years Katelyn Sadorf and Hypatia Hamkins in the 4x400m event, destroying the previous record times with 4:05.75. These sprinters are looking to track down more records and personal bests in the upcoming seasons.

The Caltech distance group is the epitome of hard work paying off, as they always shine in every competition. Two beavers medaled in the women’s 10K in Championships, Gigi Pistilli with second place and a personal best 37:17.70 and Sophia Dalfonzo snatching up third place with a time of 37:23.68. Miles Jones currently holds four top ten all-time spots in the record book, three of which happening this year in the 1500m, 3K, and 5K. Newcomer freshman, Stephen Goehringer eager to run the 3000m steeplechase this season ran a personal best 9:31.14 at Championships, scoring and putting himself at No.2 in program history.

Baseball

Baseball took home some early non-conference wins and started conference play off strong, stealing wins from Occidental, Redlands, and Whittier. The Beavers brought home 10 regular season wins this year, tying last year’s squad for the most wins in a season in program history. Plus, as a team, Caltech pitched a 7.21 ERA in the 24-25 season, improving upon their last seasons’ statistics of a 7.67 ERA in 2024.

This season’s remarkable performance by senior outfielder, Jack Fishel, was exemplified by breaking a long-standing all-time hits record. He will leave his mark with a new school record of 151 career hits and a .377 batting average for the season. Another notable player, Brendan Flaherty led baseball on the mound this season, with a 4.61 ERA. He led the team with a high of 88 innings pitched.

Women’s Water Polo

Women’s water polo faced tough competition in non-conference matchups and SCIAC games this season. Early in the season, the Beavers had a movie of a game against Chapman, being down 2-10 at the half, and nearly coming back, ending the game 13-15. This remarkable game certainly left an impression on the rest of the teams in the division, showing how Caltech gave the No. 3 team in Division III a run for their money. And on top of that, history was finally made as the team secured their first ever SCIAC win in program history with a 10-8 dub against Redlands on March 26th!

Throughout the season, two standout beavers acquired many accolades, Maya Dickson and Elizabeth Field. Both were named SCIAC Defensive Athlete of the Week during conference play. As a goalkeeper, Field put up massive numbers with 56 saves, 0.318 save percentage and 12.63 goals against average, which also earned her a SCIAC Character Award. Dickson earned SecondTeam All-SCIAC honors this season, etching her name in the record books with a career year, leading the Beavers in 55 goals, 76 points scored, 67 steals, 28 field blocks and 30 drawn exclusions.

As the season comes to a close, Caltech’s student-athletes continue to prove that excellence isn’t limited to the classroom. Behind the wins and records, there are dedicated people contributing to the culture of the Caltech community. We will celebrate all these exemplary student-athletes at the Student Athlete Celebration on May 19th. Stay tuned for more inside coverage on Caltech athletics.