Natalie Bitetti will be the No. 3 seed in the 3000 at nationals

Posted: Mar 04, 2024

DMR Team, Natalie Bitetti Earn NCAA Indoor Track and Field Invitations

CLAREMONT, Calif. - Natalie Bitetti earned an invitation to the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships this weekend after recording the third-best time in the 3000 meters during the regular season, and she will also get to compete at nationals with the distance medley relay team, along with Riley Capuano, Sally Gaskell and Laura Zimmer, the NCAA announced on Sunday.

Bitetti ran a 9:29.76 in the 3000 meters at the Boston University David Hemery Valentine Invitational on Feb. 9, which was second behind Grace Richardson of NYU at the event (9:27.12) and third behind Richardson and Fiona Smith of St. Benedict (9:23.40) in all of Division III this season.

Bitetti finished second behind Smith at the NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships in November, which matched the highest finish for any CMS cross country runner, men or women, in program history. She also ranked third in indoor track and field season in the 5000 meters, but elected to run the 3K and the DMR at nationals.

The Athenas ran a 11:43.04 in the DMR at the Valentine Invitational, and that held up as the No. 11 time in all of Division III this season. The top 12 relay teams earn invitations, and CMS was .04 ahead of Connecticut College in 12th, and had a margin of just under one full second ahead of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, the first team out with an 11:44.00.

Bitetti will try to join Bryn McKillop and Meredith Bloss as Indoor All-Americans (top eight) in the distance events for CMS. McKillop finished second in the 3000 in 2018 with a 9:39.09, and Bloss was seventh in the 5000 in 2022.

The Athenas will be sending a DMR team to indoor nationals for the first time in program history, after Capuano, Gaskell and Zimmer joined Bitetti to run the fastest time at CMS, indoors or outdoors. Capuano finished 11th at the NCAA Division III Cross Country championships to earn All-America honors, and had the highest jump of anyone in the country from 2022 to 2023 (257th to 11th), while Zimmer was also a member of the Athena team that took fourth at nationals in the fall.

The NCAA Division III Indoor Track and Field Championships will be held on Friday and Saturday at the Virginia Beach Sports Center. The DMR will be run on Friday night at 6:15 p.m. local time (3:15 Pacific), and the 3000 meters will be held on Saturday at 5:40 p.m.