Both having extensive histories of success, the Pomona-Pitzer men’s cross-country and the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women’s cross-country teams achieved SCIAC’s peak by outperforming their competition in the championships over this past weekend.
With this win, the Sagehens have now earned the SCIAC team title for three out of the last four years of competition. Meanwhile, the Athenas have extended their decade-long streak of being crowned SCIAC champions to 11 years.
The men’s competition featured a tight one-two battle between P-P and CMS, with the Sagehens narrowly edging out the Stags by a slim margin of eight points. Overall, P-P athletes comprised 13 out of the first 25 runners to cross the finish line.
To achieve this feat, the Sagehens jumped out to a blistering pace early and maintained a front pack throughout the majority of the meet. Some notable performances include Ethan Widlansky’s PO ’22 second-place finish, closely followed by Colin Kirkpatrick PO ’24, Lucas Florsheim PO ’24, and Jack Rosencrans PO ’23 who finished 6th, 7th, and 8th respectively.
On the other hand, the CMS women’s cross-country team thoroughly blew out their runner-up competition by a margin of 33 points, scoring a near-perfect mark of 18. This total was historic, serving as the lowest score by a program in the history of the SCIAC women’s cross-country championships.
This was made possible due to five Athenas making up the first six athletes to cross the line. Led by a first-place finish by Meredith Bloss HM ’23 and a second-place finish by Riley Harmon SC ’22, rounding out the top five for CMS was Natalie Bitetti CM ’24, Emily Clarke SC ’22 and Sophie Gitlin CM ’22, concluding the race at 4th, 5th and 6th respectively.
As a result of these performances, each program featured ten athletes who achieved first and second team all-SCIAC honor recognitions for their performances in this meet.
Both teams will look forward to competing in the NCAA West Regionals Championship on Nov. 13, in an attempt to qualify for a spot in the Division III National Championship.