Caltech Senior Morgan Hill Nears 81-Year-Old Hammer Record at Pomona-Pitzer Invite

Senior Morgan Hill  threw within half a meter of an 81-year old Caltech track & field program record and notched personal bests in both his other throwing events in a wildly successful day for the Beavers despite rainy conditions at the Pomona-Pitzer Invitational.

Hill began his day with a foul on his first attempt but responded immediately, out-throwing his previous best mark by over two meters to reach 151 feet and 10 inches, which puts him just one foot, six and seven-eighths inches off Robert Parker’s record from 1935.  The senior placed 11^thoverall among a strong field of Division II and III competitors, ranking third among SCIAC throwers.  He then cleared another career mark in the shot put by almost three inches (32 feet, two and one-quarter inches) and launched the discus over 100 feet for the first time in his career, posting a mark of 100 feet, eight inches.

“It has certainly been fun to see Morgan’s improvement this season,” Head Coach Ben Raphelson said.  “This whole year, he has been an eager learner and has embraced the daily opportunities to improve.”

With roughly half the squad training specifically for this meet and the other using it as more of a tune-up, spectators could have been forgiven for thinking this was the Beavers’ championship meet as a handful posted excellent achievements despite the rainy conditions. Freshman Muskaan Goyal had a day in the women’s events, matching her PR in the discus before dropping another .12 in the 100-meter dash (17.66). Junior Lucy Chen inched closer to the top-10 list in the long jump as she cleared an additional one and one-quarter inches and junior Lilly Luo dropped a second in the 5k (21:48.45), weaving her way through a handful of other finishers and dodging a stray hurdle down the stretch.

The men’s side found considerable success too. Sophomore Alex Bourzutschky approached his personal bests from last year with season-best times in both the 200m (24.51) and 400m (54.43), shaving .84 and 1.36, respectively. The 4×100 relay trimmed another .14 to clock a 47.55 – a shade under last year’s top time – and freshman Ben Calvin improved in the 200m by .17 (25.93) and posted a 19.36 in the 110m high hurdles. Senior Anup Kishore continued his steady progress in his return from injury by bettering each attempt in the discus, eventually throwing four feet farther than last month (61 feet, one inch).

Raphelson and the Beavers complete the dual meet schedule at the SCIAC Multi-Dual #3 in Redlands on Saturday, Apr. 16.

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