Beavers Have Ice in Their Veins: Caltech Winter ‘25-26 Athletics

As many of us know, s’more year fall and winter terms are absolute killers. Unfortunately, I was also a victim of this, which is why instead of my usual periodic updates throughout the winter athletic season, I am bringing to you all a complete season recap in a nutshell!

Swim and Dive

Caltech Swim and Dive started off their efforts with SCIAC Quad meet on November 15, the men’s team beating Occidental (199-86) and La Verne (223-39) and the women’s team also winning (195-98) on Oxy and La Verne (221-55). Shortly after, S&D took their yearly training trip to Coronado, and came back to finish out conference meets strong.

Swim and Dive took huge wins at SCIAC Championships to complete an amazing season yet again. Senior beavers, Simon Hu (CNS ‘26, Page/Lloyd) and Diya Kumar (Ay/GPS ‘26, Page), both were recognized with All-Conference awards, with the SCIAC Character award. On top of this, even more school records were broken over the course of the championship meet, racking up a total of seven across swim and dive. Zachary Pestrikov (EE ‘27) set the school record in the 200 IM, and then proceeded to beat it yet again for the 1:50:59 record and a third place finish in the event. The 400 Medley Relay team, consisting of Aaron Dumas (CS ‘28, Page), Thomas Fenton (EE ‘28, Fleming), Marcel Liu (ACM ‘27, Fleming), and Simon Hu, broke a school record and finished on the podium. Freshman, Elizabeth Nguyen (‘29, Avery), made her mark in the 100 and 200 Breaststroke races, shattering both records effortlessly. Elizabeth Ma (BEM ‘28, Lloyd) set another record in the 400 IM.

The dive team had major success as well, with two top eight finishers at championships — Anthony Wang (Bi ‘28, Avery) and Ava Balanon (ChemE ‘28, Fleming) — and one podium finisher in the 3M diving, Jana Woo (BEM/CS ‘27, Page/Fleming). All divers, including the three aforementioned and Kassie Kristufek (ChemE ‘28, Fleming), competed at NCAA Regionals at Emory University in Atlanta, GA this past month! Big congrats on this achievement, and we can’t wait to see how Swim and Dive does next season!

Caltech S&D celebrates an accomplished term of athletics on their Instagram. (Images: Caltech Swim and Dive)

Women’s Basketball

Now, here’s where we get a little personal. This being my own team, I’d acknowledge that we had a pretty difficult season. This season, we were led by interim head coach, Madison Quan, and started off with six players. We did have some big roles to step into, coming off of a successful season last year, but we showed some crazy growth over the course of the year! And us being a young team, consisting of five sophomores, one freshman, and our amazing addition of two soccer (now WBB) players; I know that next year will be a breakout season!

So, starting off the season right, we tallied up two non-conference wins against Stanton University and Illinois Tech just before the winter break. Diving straight into conference play, we fought really hard against top of the conference teams. After taking a close, six point loss to La Verne at The Tents, coming onto our home court, Caltech WBB managed to gather a strong conference win over La Verne (47-41).

Over the course of the season, three beavers were averaging double digits in points per game. The first being freshman point guard Izzy Lo (‘29, Lloyd), who also led the conference in minutes played. Next was our sophomore point guard, Zeynep Goktepe (CS ‘28, Page) who led the conference in field goal percentage (#efficienZ). Lastly was sophomore forward Kyra Phaychanpheng (ESE ‘28, Fleming), who also finished as the third leading scorer in the conference. On the defensive end, our rim protector, Louise Scriven, led the conference in blocks per game! These stats only show a glimpse of how much this team grew since the fall — and I’m excited to see what’s to come!

Caltech WBB celebrates faculty liaison, John Dabiri, at the home win over La Verne on February 18. (Image: Caltech Women’s Basketball)

Men’s Basketball

The Caltech Men’s basketball team this year also showed some great growth, especially as a young team as well. MBB also picked up some non-conference wins early on, taking down West Coast Baptist twice, and Oglethorpe on their travel trip to Atlanta, GA during winter break. The Beavers also were able to gather a conference win over La Verne, 88-85 (on the same night as WBB!)

Freshman, Dorian Glogovac (‘29, Fleming), had a memorable debut season and received an All-Conference award, being named Newcomer of the Year and here at Caltech, breaking the single season scoring record. He averaged 23.6 ppg, 7.4 rpg over the course of the season. Key contributors to the team this year included Josh Balami (CS ‘28, Fleming) and Chase Williamson (CS ‘28, Fleming), who both averaged double digits in points, 12.4 ppg and 10.9 ppg respectively, and secured the boards for the beavers. As this young team gained big conference experience, we are excited to see what’s in store for them next season.

So as we look ahead to the spring term, we can look forward to some exciting spring sport action. Caltech baseball is in full swing, track and field is making big marks, men’s and women’s tennis are destroying their opponents, and women’s water polo is splashing into the conference play! Look out for some upcoming home games to cheer on your fall sport beavers. Stay tuned for more coverage on Caltech athletics!

Caltech MBB at their annual alumni event on January 25. (Image: Caltech Women’s Basketball)