Photo by: Jamie Mitchell
Mustang Spotlight: Caice Lanovaz • Cal Poly Track & Field
7/16/2020 1:49:00 PM | Track and Field
On March 12, anticipation and excitement were in the air as Cal Poly track & field student-athletes began practice with all eyes looking toward the weekend ahead.
Later on during that same Thursday evening, almost a dozen Mustangs were scheduled to depart for their season-opening meet planned to start the next morning at Cal State Fullerton. Two larger travel groups were packed to follow them down Highway 101 that Friday, kicking off three months of meets they had awaited.
Then, the news broke at Miller & Capriotti Athletics Complex.
Caice Lanovaz, an all-conference heptathlete, was among the Mustangs getting in a pre-meet warm-up routine. "It was crazy," she remembers.
Tommy Andrews, a junior sprinter, took a moment to glance at Twitter on his phone and proceeded to show his teammates the stunning announcement: all spring-sport action had been suspended by the Big West out of caution in regards to the spread of the coronavirus. Over the next 24 hours, all spring seasons would officially be cancelled across the NCAA.
Suddenly after all her years of training, road trips to meets, representing Cal Poly and bringing her goals for the months ahead into focus, Lanovaz now instead had to process the abrupt reality replacing what she envisioned for her senior season.
"We all stopped in the middle of our workouts and couldn't believe what was going on," Lanovaz recalled. "I was one of the only seniors out on the track at the time, and the realization that I was not going to have my last season was heartbreaking."
However, rather than dwell for long, Lanovaz soon turned a negative into a positive, putting her newfound time to use.
Heading home to Los Gatos for virtual study, during the ensuing three months the Microbiology major would earn her third consecutive spot on the Big West All-Academic Team.
The previous summer, Lanovaz received a Frost Scholarship for research, measuring telomere length in avian species, in conjunction with faculty mentors. Although the adjustment to less in-person endeavors took some getting used to — along with not having Kennedy Library's five floors of study space — "I was in some pretty interesting classes," she reflected on this past quarter. "They worked well online, and I feel like I still got the same education I would've in person."
More recently, she embarked on a summer internship which couldn't be more timely.
Learn By Doing
At the start of June, Lanovaz began interning with Cepheid, a Bay Area biotech company known as an innovator in automated molecular diagnostics.
In late March, Cepheid had developed an automated test for SARS-CoV-2, the virus which causes COVID-19. With less than a minute of hands-on time to prepare a sample, Cepheid's test can provide rapid detection as quickly as a half-hour.
"What's different about Cepheid is that they build a device kind of like an ink cartridge called the GeneXpert, which is used directly in hospitals and clinics to test patients so they can get results almost instantly," Lanovaz said. "So, instead of getting a test and then sending the test out to a lab for analysis, which usually takes days or weeks, Cepheid brings the lab to the patient, where the patient can get results in 15 to 20 minutes."
The Sunnyvale-based lab, which previously specialized in tuberculosis kits, among other testing disbursed globally, won emergency approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to use its new test.
Today, Lanovaz is in the lab with a COVID innovation and research team, aiming to make the test even faster.
"I'm learning new things every day," she says.
'A Complete Mastery of Time Management'
Now a multi-time Dean's List honoree for Cal Poly's College of Science and Math, Lanovaz had numerous opportunities coming out of Los Gatos High School in 2015-16 after a youth career that even took her to Colombia for the U-18 World Championships. A certain major offered at Cal Poly particularly caught her eye.
"Microbiology is a rare major to find," she said. "I was interested in studying viruses and diseases and doing clinical studies, which is more microbiology [as opposed to bio-engineering]. And I knew I kind of wanted to go into the biotech field, and Cal Poly had a lot of great research opportunities. I think it was a perfect fit in that sense; it's a very good academic school and D-I track school, so it was a really good balance between the two."
In his first year on campus, when Lanovaz was a freshman, assistant coach Les Courtemanche worked with her on occasion specific to throws, helping her hone her shot put and javelin skills. When multis coach Jenni Ashcroft took a position at Michigan, though, Courtemanche added the decathletes and heptathletes to his group. Since then, he hasn't been surprised by Lanovaz's achievements, whether on the track or off.
"In order to pull that feat off — in order to set your priorities with academics and holding yourself to a high standard yet still coming out to practice and bringing it at that level too everyday — you have to sacrifice a lot of your social life and balance out friends and relationships," Courtemanche said of the USTFCCCA Scholar award recipient. "It's a complete mastery of time management, is what it is. It's having the mindset of just really trying to hold yourself to the same standard in both worlds, academically and athletically. One kind of complements the other."
Courtemanche fondly recalls the Washington Invitational in 2019 when Lanovaz shook off a cold and still was determined to enter the Huskies' pentathlon. Despite competing under the weather, she persevered onward, ultimately scoring 3,585 points inside Dempsey Indoor, a PR good for No. 2 on the program's all-time chart.
"She's one of the most mentally tough athletes I've ever coached," Courtemanche said. "Not only is she mentally tough but she has extreme desire in what she does — that's why she does so well in not just athletics but also her academics, and for a coach, you can't be more proud."
Lanovaz capped her junior year with a new outdoor best at the Big West Finals, scoring 5,123 points in the heptathlon to earn the No. 5 ranking in school history, and a No. 45 ranking west of the Mississippi for 2019.
"Caice is the consummate student-athlete, meaning she leaves no stone unturned when it comes to preparation for her classwork or competition. She personifies the attributes of the heptathlete — someone who has to stay focused and dedicated for a long period of time while always giving their all," said Mark Conover, Cal Poly Director of Track & Field. "She leads by example as her desire and dedication are infectious to the rest of the team."
To start 2020, she returned to Seattle to post the top pentathlon score by a collegian at the UW Invite, taking second place only to a pro in attendance. As for her favorite event, Lanovaz quicky answers that it's the long jump, in which she has also scored at the Big West Championships and has a PR of 19 feet, 4 inches, just ahead of the javelin (106').
The Mustangs were within shouting distance of the Big West trophy in 2019, with a third-place total of 118 points, just 11.5 back of the championship.
"It was such a close competition," Lanovaz says looking back, "and it got us excited for what would've been this season. And, also just traveling for indoor on those trips to Seattle and Arkansas with teammates, I know we had a lot of potential to do really well."
Looking to the Future
After the initial cancellation in March, the NCAA provided all spring-season student-athletes an extra year of eligibility, should they elect to use it.
Courtemanche and Conover were elated when Lanovaz informed them she planned to return for a 2021 senior season.
"When she asked me about the possibility of returning for another season after COVID-19 altered her plans, I told her I would be excited if she came back," Conover added. "Caice and our team were ready to challenge for Big West Conference titles. With her focus and determination, the team can only benefit by her presence. Her priorities are in order as evidenced by her work with COVID-19 testing and helping our world to get through this pandemic."
Courtemanche is confident that Lanovaz could reach the 5,400-point level in the heptathlon next spring and compete for a Big West title, with reaching the NCAA meet as a goal. (There's no prelim round for multis, with only 24 heptathletes advancing straight to a national final.)
"She's a natural leader just by example. She's the type of athlete that is not going to let anybody down," Courtemanche said. Lanovaz also ran a leg in the 4x100-meter relay at last year's Big West Championships. "Our entire team is starting to embrace that mindset of really finding a way and competing with some mental toughness and extreme desire. She's a really good role model for not just the multis squad, but for a lot of the students on our team."
While she aspires to potentially stay in the biotech field, Lanovaz is also intrigued by genetic counseling, and is keeping her options open with consideration to pursuing a grad program as well.
In the meantime, though, she can't wait to get back out on the track.
"No matter what happens next year," she says, "we're going to be ready for it."
@CPMustangs • #RideHigh
By Donovan Aird • Photos Courtesy of Jamie Mitchell / Alexander Bohlen / Lloyd Sicard (BigWest.org) / James Colón ©
Later on during that same Thursday evening, almost a dozen Mustangs were scheduled to depart for their season-opening meet planned to start the next morning at Cal State Fullerton. Two larger travel groups were packed to follow them down Highway 101 that Friday, kicking off three months of meets they had awaited.
Then, the news broke at Miller & Capriotti Athletics Complex.
Caice Lanovaz, an all-conference heptathlete, was among the Mustangs getting in a pre-meet warm-up routine. "It was crazy," she remembers.
Tommy Andrews, a junior sprinter, took a moment to glance at Twitter on his phone and proceeded to show his teammates the stunning announcement: all spring-sport action had been suspended by the Big West out of caution in regards to the spread of the coronavirus. Over the next 24 hours, all spring seasons would officially be cancelled across the NCAA.
Suddenly after all her years of training, road trips to meets, representing Cal Poly and bringing her goals for the months ahead into focus, Lanovaz now instead had to process the abrupt reality replacing what she envisioned for her senior season."We all stopped in the middle of our workouts and couldn't believe what was going on," Lanovaz recalled. "I was one of the only seniors out on the track at the time, and the realization that I was not going to have my last season was heartbreaking."
However, rather than dwell for long, Lanovaz soon turned a negative into a positive, putting her newfound time to use.
Heading home to Los Gatos for virtual study, during the ensuing three months the Microbiology major would earn her third consecutive spot on the Big West All-Academic Team.
The previous summer, Lanovaz received a Frost Scholarship for research, measuring telomere length in avian species, in conjunction with faculty mentors. Although the adjustment to less in-person endeavors took some getting used to — along with not having Kennedy Library's five floors of study space — "I was in some pretty interesting classes," she reflected on this past quarter. "They worked well online, and I feel like I still got the same education I would've in person."
More recently, she embarked on a summer internship which couldn't be more timely.
Learn By Doing
At the start of June, Lanovaz began interning with Cepheid, a Bay Area biotech company known as an innovator in automated molecular diagnostics.
In late March, Cepheid had developed an automated test for SARS-CoV-2, the virus which causes COVID-19. With less than a minute of hands-on time to prepare a sample, Cepheid's test can provide rapid detection as quickly as a half-hour.
"What's different about Cepheid is that they build a device kind of like an ink cartridge called the GeneXpert, which is used directly in hospitals and clinics to test patients so they can get results almost instantly," Lanovaz said. "So, instead of getting a test and then sending the test out to a lab for analysis, which usually takes days or weeks, Cepheid brings the lab to the patient, where the patient can get results in 15 to 20 minutes."
The Sunnyvale-based lab, which previously specialized in tuberculosis kits, among other testing disbursed globally, won emergency approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to use its new test.
Today, Lanovaz is in the lab with a COVID innovation and research team, aiming to make the test even faster.
"I'm learning new things every day," she says.
'A Complete Mastery of Time Management'
Now a multi-time Dean's List honoree for Cal Poly's College of Science and Math, Lanovaz had numerous opportunities coming out of Los Gatos High School in 2015-16 after a youth career that even took her to Colombia for the U-18 World Championships. A certain major offered at Cal Poly particularly caught her eye.
"Microbiology is a rare major to find," she said. "I was interested in studying viruses and diseases and doing clinical studies, which is more microbiology [as opposed to bio-engineering]. And I knew I kind of wanted to go into the biotech field, and Cal Poly had a lot of great research opportunities. I think it was a perfect fit in that sense; it's a very good academic school and D-I track school, so it was a really good balance between the two."
In his first year on campus, when Lanovaz was a freshman, assistant coach Les Courtemanche worked with her on occasion specific to throws, helping her hone her shot put and javelin skills. When multis coach Jenni Ashcroft took a position at Michigan, though, Courtemanche added the decathletes and heptathletes to his group. Since then, he hasn't been surprised by Lanovaz's achievements, whether on the track or off.
"In order to pull that feat off — in order to set your priorities with academics and holding yourself to a high standard yet still coming out to practice and bringing it at that level too everyday — you have to sacrifice a lot of your social life and balance out friends and relationships," Courtemanche said of the USTFCCCA Scholar award recipient. "It's a complete mastery of time management, is what it is. It's having the mindset of just really trying to hold yourself to the same standard in both worlds, academically and athletically. One kind of complements the other."
Courtemanche fondly recalls the Washington Invitational in 2019 when Lanovaz shook off a cold and still was determined to enter the Huskies' pentathlon. Despite competing under the weather, she persevered onward, ultimately scoring 3,585 points inside Dempsey Indoor, a PR good for No. 2 on the program's all-time chart."She's one of the most mentally tough athletes I've ever coached," Courtemanche said. "Not only is she mentally tough but she has extreme desire in what she does — that's why she does so well in not just athletics but also her academics, and for a coach, you can't be more proud."
Lanovaz capped her junior year with a new outdoor best at the Big West Finals, scoring 5,123 points in the heptathlon to earn the No. 5 ranking in school history, and a No. 45 ranking west of the Mississippi for 2019.
"Caice is the consummate student-athlete, meaning she leaves no stone unturned when it comes to preparation for her classwork or competition. She personifies the attributes of the heptathlete — someone who has to stay focused and dedicated for a long period of time while always giving their all," said Mark Conover, Cal Poly Director of Track & Field. "She leads by example as her desire and dedication are infectious to the rest of the team."
To start 2020, she returned to Seattle to post the top pentathlon score by a collegian at the UW Invite, taking second place only to a pro in attendance. As for her favorite event, Lanovaz quicky answers that it's the long jump, in which she has also scored at the Big West Championships and has a PR of 19 feet, 4 inches, just ahead of the javelin (106').
The Mustangs were within shouting distance of the Big West trophy in 2019, with a third-place total of 118 points, just 11.5 back of the championship.
"It was such a close competition," Lanovaz says looking back, "and it got us excited for what would've been this season. And, also just traveling for indoor on those trips to Seattle and Arkansas with teammates, I know we had a lot of potential to do really well."
Looking to the Future
After the initial cancellation in March, the NCAA provided all spring-season student-athletes an extra year of eligibility, should they elect to use it.
Courtemanche and Conover were elated when Lanovaz informed them she planned to return for a 2021 senior season.
"When she asked me about the possibility of returning for another season after COVID-19 altered her plans, I told her I would be excited if she came back," Conover added. "Caice and our team were ready to challenge for Big West Conference titles. With her focus and determination, the team can only benefit by her presence. Her priorities are in order as evidenced by her work with COVID-19 testing and helping our world to get through this pandemic."
Courtemanche is confident that Lanovaz could reach the 5,400-point level in the heptathlon next spring and compete for a Big West title, with reaching the NCAA meet as a goal. (There's no prelim round for multis, with only 24 heptathletes advancing straight to a national final.)
"She's a natural leader just by example. She's the type of athlete that is not going to let anybody down," Courtemanche said. Lanovaz also ran a leg in the 4x100-meter relay at last year's Big West Championships. "Our entire team is starting to embrace that mindset of really finding a way and competing with some mental toughness and extreme desire. She's a really good role model for not just the multis squad, but for a lot of the students on our team."
While she aspires to potentially stay in the biotech field, Lanovaz is also intrigued by genetic counseling, and is keeping her options open with consideration to pursuing a grad program as well.
In the meantime, though, she can't wait to get back out on the track.
"No matter what happens next year," she says, "we're going to be ready for it."
@CPMustangs • #RideHigh
By Donovan Aird • Photos Courtesy of Jamie Mitchell / Alexander Bohlen / Lloyd Sicard (BigWest.org) / James Colón ©
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