Hitting Her Stride

After a humble start, Riley Capuano ’26 has emerged as one of the best Division III athletes in the country.

Story by Robyn Norwood

Photos by Anibal Ortiz

Riley Capuano ’26 is not being overly humble.

Instead, the two-time All-American in cross country—who finished second in the nation in the 1500 meters at the 2024 NCAA Division III Track and Field Championships—is trying to stick to the facts of her CMS Athletics journey.

“I wasn’t a very promising recruit, honestly. I had no history,” said Capuano, who made a somewhat unorthodox decision in high school. A lifelong soccer player before her sophomore year at Los Altos High in the Bay Area, she turned her focus to running instead.

“My favorite part about soccer was conditioning and I thought maybe I should just make that my full-time sport. And I fell in love with running.”

Yet, with a high school career limited by a late start and the COVID-19 shutdown, Capuano did not have much of a running resume for college recruiters. “I was sending all these coaches my Turkey Trot time,” she said with a laugh, referring to recreational Thanksgiving Day runs.

“I’ve gotten a lot better. But I needed a coach to take a chance on me.”

Marina Muncan, head cross country coach and assistant track coach for CMS—and a runner who competed in the 1500 meters for Serbia at the 2012 Olympics in London—was willing.

“What sold me is her love for CMC,” Muncan said of Capuano. “When we’re recruiting here, we’re not just recruiting athletes. We are recruiting somebody who will try, in our environment, to contribute to the community as a whole, not just CMS.

“Maybe she didn’t have the fastest time, but her determination to be at CMC and her vision of how she would contribute to CMC and CMS is what sold me on her. She’s proven me right—and proven herself right.”

While Muncan may have instinctively known that Capuano, with more training and competition, would improve, her rise from 275th place nationally in her first year at the cross country nationals to 11th in 2023 made a pretty significant statement. She had emerged as a Division III superstar.

And Muncan thinks there is room for Capuano to get even better.

“She’s just a gamer. There is this different look in her eye when she’s about to compete on a bigger stage,” Muncan said. “You don’t see that a lot. It’s definitely something special.”

The facts also support Capuano’s rise from obscurity to prominence: In addition to her All-America honors, she is a Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) Athlete of the Year, NCAA West Region Athlete of the Year, SCIAC Champion, and SCIAC All-Academic team member. Yet accolades don’t tell the whole story.

Capuano loves to run, and how it makes her feel—“Especially after a hard session, you get a little dopamine boost. You feel invincible, like you could run forever.” This allows her to be fully invested in the “amazing” CMS Athletics community. With running, she especially loves how the camaraderie of team sports complements the goalposts of individual times—along with the fact that professors sometimes join the teams’ training runs.

Riley Capuano ‘26 jogging on a mountain trail.

But just as switching from soccer to running seemed like an unlikely decision, Capuano had another interesting choice facing her this spring. With a chance to move up from second to a national title in the 1500, Capuano decided instead to pursue another passion project—study abroad in Seville, Spain. She will be back her senior season for a shot at that title, as well as a bid with her teammates for the national cross country title next fall.

“It was a tough decision, but it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be in another country for a semester,” Capuano said, adding that Muncan was the only coach she talked to who supported athletes missing a season of competition to study abroad.

“We’ll definitely miss her,” Muncan said. “But that’s the beauty of Division III. You get to have a real college experience.”

A dual Economics and International Relations major at CMC who is deeply involved in the Claremont Women in Business organization, Capuano is studying international business and culture, as well as Spanish while in Spain. This summer, she will intern with a global consulting firm in Los Angeles after connecting with the CMC alumni network.

Capuano is also confident that she will return to campus stronger. She attributes part of her tremendous growth as a runner since arriving at CMC to the mentorship of former teammate Natalie Bitetti ’24.

“She also made a big jump in college and was just really inspiring,” Capuano said, noting she learned to focus on weightlifting at CMC, as well as to pay attention to nutrition before and after the Athenas’ 6 and 7 a.m. workouts.

Interestingly, Bitetti also studied abroad and returned for a dominant senior season as national runner-up at the 2023 NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships, followed by a runner-up finish in the 3000 meters at the 2024 NCAA Division III Indoor Track Championships.

“We have so many students like Natalie who also studied abroad. She came back and she was a better runner,” Muncan said. “Sometimes stepping back can be beneficial, too.”

Progress Check:
Roberts Campus Sports Bowl

The Roberts Campus Sports Bowl—a new state-of-the-art, championship-caliber complex for CMS Athletics—is busy with Phase One construction in the south end of the 75-acres to the east of campus across Claremont Boulevard. Specific projects will begin this summer, including work on a pedestrian arcade—a 20-foot-wide tunnel running beneath Claremont Boulevard, connecting the Sports Bowl to campus—a parking structure, baseball and softball fields, and a golf practice area. Full completion of Phase One is expected by the end of 2026.

Watch the video below to see the future of CMS Athletics!