CMS Women's Cross Country Has Impressive Third-Place Showing at UC Riverside

RIVERSIDE, Calif. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's cross country team finished third out of 19 teams, including 12 from the Division I level, at the UC Riverside Invitational on Saturday morning.

CMS ended with 117 points, finishing behind only Utah Valley, the runaway winner with 20 points and five runners in the top eight, and Long Beach State in second with 103 points. The Athenas edged out UC Irvine (119 points for third) and ahead of a five-runner contingent from Arizona in fifth place with 166 points. 

Three Athenas recorded top-10 times at the event, with Natalie Bitetti finishing in 20:32.7, the second-fastest 6K time in program history, behind only former teammate Meredith Bloss (20:31.0) at the 2021 UC Riverside Invitational. Elle Marsyla jumped up from 27th place to sixth in CMS history with a 21:04, while Riley Capuano took a minute off of her PR and moved from 38th to ninth with a 21:17.3. 

In addition, Laura Zimmer moved up to 12th by finishing in 21:26.1. Sara Wexler (21:55.2) and Revere Schmidt (22:03.1) joined the CMS all-time list in 29th and 31st, respectively, while Hannah Weaver had a big jump from 68th to 38th with a 22:15.1. Sally Gaskell also debuted on the sub-23 minute list with a 22:24.2 in 46th in program history.

Bitetti's time was good for 10th place at the UC Riverside Invitational, while Marsyla was 18th, Capuano 31st and Zimmer 34th. Angie Gushue was the fifth CMS scorer with a time of 21:33.9 to come in 44th. 

CMS will be back in action next weekend when it travels to compete at the The Master's Invitational in Santa Clarita.