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TSR's 2024 Preseason D3 XC Top 10 Team Rankings (Women): #3 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Athenas
- Kevin Fischer
- Sep 11, 2024
- 6 min read
Written by Kevin Fischer, edits & additional commentary via Gavin Struve & Garrett Zatlin
NOTE: Earlier this summer, The Stride Report reached out to nearly every team that was considered for a possible ranking this summer. While we did receive numerous responses and great clarity, we did not get a 100% response rate. On certain occasions, we are referencing TFFRS in order to talk about returners and athletes who are out of eligibility.
The hunt for the women's team title at the 2023 NCAA XC Championships was about as wide open as we've ever seen at the D3 level, as the top-four teams were separated by a mere seven points.
The team that emerged on top, Carleton, has since lost a lot of talent, and the other podium teams all bring back groups that will have them feeling like they can win it all.
Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS), who finished 4th at the cross country national meet last fall, is certainly in that title contender category. We say that even after they lost their superstar front-runner. Nonetheless, multiple established All-Americans return to the fray along with a very talented supporting cast eager to show what they can do.
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The Athenas were ranked TSR #10 in our 2023 preseason rankings, but they quickly made it clear that they were even better than we expected. They opened their season at Cal State Fullerton's Mark Covert Classic, finishing 2nd behind Cal Baptist in a field made up largely of Division One, Division Two and NAIA programs.
While that didn't necessarily tell us much in regard to how they matched up with top Division Three schools, it did show us that Riley Capuano (10th) and Elle Marsyla (11th) had taken a leap in their fitness over the summer. Before then, we didn't know exactly what we would see behind Natalie Bitetti (who was 3rd), so that was a hugely encouraging sign.
The UC-Riverside XC Invitational -- where CMS placed 3rd -- was a similar story, with some promising performances, but an ultimately unclear picture given the lack of Division Three schools in the field. The same could be said for a runner-up finish behind a competitive Division Two program, Biola, at the Master's University XC Invitational.
NCAA D3 Pre-Nationals was where the Athenas finally got to show the nation exactly how good they were, as they won the meet with only 51 points. That gave them a 48-point margin of victory over 2nd-place MIT.
Bitetti (2nd) was joined by a full scoring contingent of teammates in the top-20 spots of a national-caliber field. Marsyla (5th), Capuano (13th), Angela Gushue (14th) and Laura Zimmer (18th) each offered excellent value.
After a dominant SCIAC XC Championship title win against less rigorous competition, in which Bitetti, Marsyla and Capuano went 1-2-3 and three teammates joined them in the top-eight, the Athenas toed the line for the West Regional XC Championships.
They once again won comfortably. Bitetti, Marsyla, and Capuano recorded another sweep of the top-three spots, and CMS' fourth through sixth runners all finished inside the top-20. George Fox and Colorado College were solid teams, but the Athenas were simply in a class all their own against their West Coast opposition.
Going into the cross country national meet, the Athenas had every reason to believe that they could compete for a national title, and compete they did. Their 4th-place finish doesn't tell the story of how close they came to winning. They were only two points out of 3rd place, four points out of 2nd, and seven points out of 1st.
In fact, the average time of CMS' top-five runners was the fastest in the field!
Natalie Bitetti put down a monster 2nd-place finish individually, while Capuano had a huge day in 11th place and Marsyla more than held her own in 27th. That was a lethal scoring contingent that was as potent as it had been all season (relative to expectations).
The backend scoring combo of Sara Wexler and Gushue was very solid as well after posting 73rd and 88th-place finishes, respectively. However, that backend scoring effort couldn't match up with the fourth and fifth runners from the top-three teams in the field, Carleton, NYU and U. of Chicago.
With margins so small, it would feel unfair to pick nits about where the Athenas could have made up points. And yet, the simple reality is that the top-three teams were simply more potent at the latter-half of their scoring group than CMS was, even if it was only barely.
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The biggest loss for this crew is Natalie Bitetti. She was the top team scorer in the entire cross country national meet field, as the only woman to finish ahead of her (Fiona Smith) was competing as an individual. Her transfer to New Mexico is a tough blow for Coach Marina Muncan's squad.
Also departing is Laura Zimmer, who was the Athenas' sixth finisher at last year's cross country national meet. They'll feel her absence more on the track, as she was an outdoor national meet qualifier over 1500 meters this past spring.
Hannah Weaver, who was the eighth Athena to finish at the 2023 SCIAC XC Championships (before a measurable gap), is another name who's not coming back this fall. She didn't put up flashy numbers, but she was a valuable depth piece who will be missed.
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Even without Bitetti, the Athenas' returning core is incredibly robust and primed to give another go at the program's first national title.
Riley Capuano and Elle Marsyla will be the duo headlining the show. They're ranked TSR #5 and TSR #11, respectively, in our preseason individual rankings. These two women are known commodities who will help the Athenas maintain their front-end firepower even after losing their leading woman.
And while we'd like to say more about their low-stick roles, the real opportunities for growth opportunity on this team will likely come after this duo crosses the line.
Beyond them, returning scorers Sara Wexler and Angela Gushue are also pretty well established, having finished 73rd and 88th, respectively, at last year's cross country national meet. Gushue has the added benefit of having raced at every cross country national meet since 2021 (when CMS finished as the national runner-up) and finishing no worse than 131st at any of them.
At the very least, those two women bring very solid scoring stability to the table. Sure, improvements would certainly help, but being able to replicate those kinds of results throughout this fall would help CMS avoid any truly poor outing this fall and keep them as favorites to return to the podium.
Revere Schmidt, who made the national meet lineup as a true freshman last fall and finished a solid 178th, will be another key piece. She recorded some solid, if not spectacular, times on the oval, but will be looking to make a jump in her second collegiate cross country season.
And if you're a believe in youth-based upside (like we are), then you're likely viewing Schmidt as one of the bigger x-factors on this team in 2024.
Among those outside of last year's varsity seven, Sadie Drucker seems to have the best shot of breaking in.
She ran a solid 4:39 mark over 1500 meters this past spring, and you only have to look to Capuano and Laura Zimmer to see how successful this program is at translating middle distance success to the grass.
Drucker opened her 2024 cross country season with an 8th-place finish at this year's Mark Covert Classic, ahead of Wexler, Gushue and Schmidt, so it looks like a breakout may already be taking place for her.
Sally Gaskell was this team's ninth runner at the SCIAC XC Championships as a freshman last fall and is a candidate to enter the varsity lineup if she enjoys a big freshman-to-sophomore leap.
On top of those returning, Muncan has recruited a talented class of freshmen. It's always difficult to gauge whether first-year athletes can make a real immediate impact, but it can't be counted out.
Jie Yi Denise Chen, of Claremont High School, stayed local in her college commitment and seems to have the best chance among the members of her class to break into the top-seven this fall. She has run 10:44 (3200) and finished 3rd at the 2023 CIF Division 2 State Cross Country Championships.
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It's never easy to replace somebody as elite as Natalie Bitetti, but it gets easier when you have two other All-American finishers.
A mixture of solid, established veterans and unproven, but talented athletes will fill in the backend scoring spots. On paper, this team shouldn't regress -- they return four scorers after all -- and a podium finish should be in the cards again.
It would not be all that shocking to see the Athenas take their first national title in 2024, but in order for that to happen, they will need a surprise or two from their third through fifth scorers. This team isn't the deepest out there, but with a solid returning core and a recent history of success, CMS feels like one of the most sure bets atop the D3 cross country landscape.
