Bitetti repeats as champion to lead sweep of top three spots with Marsyla and Capuano in women's 6-kilometer race, Florsheim helps Sagehens produce five athletes in the top eight in men's 8-kilometer competition in Riverside

By Pete Marshall for DyeStat

RIVERSIDE, Calif. – Saturday’s Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Cross Country Championships had a lot happen precisely as expected.

Natalie Bitetti repeated as women’s champion and led her Claremont-Mudd-Scripps team to its 13th consecutive team title, with the Pomona-Pitzer men winning a third straight crown.

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But beyond that, there were a few unknowns for the races that took place at the Riverside Cross Country Course.

It is the same course where the NCAA Division 3 West Regional races will be held Nov. 11 to determine qualifiers for the national championship meet Nov. 18 in Pennsylvania.

Derek Fearon returned to defend his individual title for Pomona-Pitzer, but it was teammate Lucas Florsheim who took home the title, running the 8-kilometer race in 24 minutes, 44.3 seconds, with Fearon finishing third (25:00.6).

“It was a great team effort today,” Florsheim said. “We tried to get to the front and control the race. That’s what we like to do in these smaller races, like conference and regionals.

“I just like to try and keep my pace consistent, doing my best to stay committed to my race plan. I drew a lot of confidence from the last few workouts I’ve had, to stay on that pace even when it gets really, really hard.”

Fearon was coming back from a fall during training early in the season for which he received stitches.

“You can bet I was in Lucas’ ear telling him I’m going to win this thing,” Fearon said. “(But) I knew Lucas was really fit and it was all about the team and we had to really make a statement.”

The Sagehens did make a statement with 23 points as their first five runners finished among the top eight competitors in the race. Claremont-Mudd-Scripps was second with 61.

Neither of those teams had the individual runner-up, however as Caltech’s Rohun Agrawal took second in 24:53.4.

“Honestly, I wasn’t expected to be that out front at the gun,” Agrawal said. “But I was and I felt good and kept passing people. The race strategy was to go at three miles. I was in second by the fourth mile.”

Was he surprised by his finish?

“One hundred percent. I was going more for top 10,” he said.

His finish led the Beavers to a tie for third (103) with La Verne, but Caltech had the stronger sixth runner.

Bitetti cruised to the title in the women’s 6-kilometer race in 21:33.9, beating her teammates Elle Marsyla (22:00.2) and Riley Capuano (22:11.3), who were second and third.

“I did a lot of mental prep before this race, kind of reminding myself that I have a target on my back,” Bitetti said. “I need to keep proving myself, not to go in complacent. So far, my racing strategy has been to get out hard, establish a pace and that usually works out better for me.”

Most of the top finishers Saturday had not run the course previously. Bitetti went to high school at Crescenta Valley in Southern California, and the CIF-Southern Section prelims and finals were held at the same site (on a shorter 3-mile course) from 2016-19.

But Bitetti said she retained no knowledge of the course before Saturday’s meet.

“That was four years ago and I was such a new runner then,” she said. “By that point, I was still learning the sport.”

The 19 points by the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women blew away the field, but it was the Redlands women who might have been the most excited after the race with a second-place team finish.

The Bulldogs finished with 91 points, edging out Pomona-Pitzer (100), Occidental (102), Caltech (110) and Chapman (115).

Chloe Bullock was the top Redlands finisher as she took ninth (22:55.5).

“I think we all knew if we had a solid race, no one would have to do anything crazy (to finish second),” Bullock said. “I think we all had really solid races and it turned out well.”