Natalie Bitetti Earns SCIAC Athlete of the Week Honors for Athenas Cross Country

CLAREMONT, Calif. - Natalie Bitetti of the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's cross country team earned the SCIAC Athlete of the Week honor for events through Sunday, Sept. 17, the league office announced today.

Bitetti recorded the second-fastest time for a 6K race in CMS history, clocking a 20:32.7 at the UC Riverside Invitational on Saturday. It ranks just 1.7 seconds behind former teammate Meredith Bloss on the Athenas' all-time list and took 6.1 seconds off of her own personal best, which was set last year at the UC Riverside Invitational. 

Bitetti's efforts helped CMS to a third-place finish out of 19 schools, 12 of which were Division I programs. CMS finished behind only champion Utah Valley and Long Beach State, while finishing ahead of UC Irvine and Arizona in fourth and fifth. 

It is the sixth time in Bitetti's career that she has earned SCIAC Athlete of the Week honors. She won it four times a year ago, and once as a first-year in 2021. 

CMS will be back in action this Saturday when it travels to Santa Clarita to run in The Master's Invitational.