Natalie Bitetti Earns First SCIAC Athlete of the Week Honor of New Season

CLAREMONT, Calif. - NatalieBitetti earned the SCIAC Women's Cross Country Athlete of the Week honor for events through Sunday, Sept. 4, the league office announced today.

Bitetti was the individual champion at the Redlands Invitational on Saturday, while leading CMS to the lowest possible team score with 15 points (Division II Cal Poly Pomona was second with 49 points). Bitetti finished the 4.5K race in 15:57.9, going out fast in the hot conditions and winning by almost a full minute over the next pack of four Athenas (Meredith Bloss was second in 16:52.0). 

Laura Zimmer was third, Anika Kimme fourth and Elle Marsyla fifth, as CMS earned a perfect score of 15 points with the top five finishers. It was the first action for the program since it earned a second-place finish at the 2021 NCAA Division III Championships, just two points shy of first (won by Johns Hopkins). After graduating four of its top six from that team, the Athenas began the year ranked No. 4 this season, and a strong debut shows that CMS looks poised to follow up that successful campaign with another year as contenders. 

Bitetti earned a 16th place finish at nationals a year ago, capturing All-America honors to add to her All-SCIAC and All-West Region accolades. She also earned the SCIAC Athlete of the Week during the regular season after coming in third at the NCAA Pre-Nationals in October. 

CMS will be back in action in two weeks when it competes at the UC Riverside Invitational on Sept. 17.