Running free: A journey across divisions
Brigid Hanley felt out of place. Her middle school shorts had seen far better days, and the persistent Arizona sun seemed foreign to the Oregon native. The walk-on wielding a full-ride academic scholarship appeared to have much to learn from the tan, Lululemon-outfitted women on the University of Arizona cross country team.
Photo by Jen Reagan
“I didn’t care that much honestly,” Hanley said, regarding her commitment to track and cross country. “And then I got to college and everyone was like ‘this is the most important thing in the whole world,’ and I was like ‘oh shit, like, I should probably care about this more.’”
A respectable runner amongst the smaller schools of Oregon, Hanley found herself more excited at the thought of exploring trails with teammates than running competitively. Finding success in the classroom opened a variety of doors for her, ultimately presenting the chance to pursue higher education at the University of Arizona.
“I love being outside, so when I was picking a college, I was kind of looking for somewhere sunny and affordable,” Hanley said. “The running in college thing was a bit of an afterthought for me personally.”
The pure joy Hanley found through outdoor movement served as motivation enough to reach out to the program’s coaches, yielding a spot on the roster as a walk-on.
It was not until the fall of 2024, following four years at Arizona and a successful D3 campaign throughout nursing school at Emory University, that Hanley’s trail would intertwine with another, similar one.
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Natalie Bitetti identified as a softball player throughout her childhood and high school years. She found solace in the pastime of practicing skills with her father in the park. But today, something felt different. Her hits faltered and focus drifted.
“Dad, I’m sorry,” Bitetti said, “I don’t want to practice anymore.”
Broken down by brutal coaches and a system that rewards the young, Bitetti’s love for softball began to fade following middle school. Even so, the pressure to continue playing weighed heavily on Bitetti, who felt a scholarship would be her only ticket to college. Following her brief commitment to University of Michigan, Bitetti re-evaluated her relationship with softball, and began prioritizing academics in her college search, ultimately earning a scholarship to Claremont McKenna College.
In search of a break from softball and her typical off-season conditioning, Bitetti followed her brother’s lead, trying her hand at cross country in the back half of her high school career. Here, she found exactly what softball left her missing.
“You were allowed to be yourself,” Bitetti said. “You were allowed to be a little weird, so I think I fell in love with the people first before the actual running side of things.”
Though COVID-19 hindered Bitetti from racking up high school results suggestive of greatness, the pandemic allowed her to relish the journey rather than any outcome, far different than her experience chasing a scholarship with softball.
“I just continued to run through Covid and I really didn't want to practice softball anymore. So that kind of tapered off and then I would run more and more,” Bitetti said, “I didn't do any workouts through the entirety of Covid - I just jogged and explored my area and fell in love with the trails.”
Eagles, Athenas, and Lobos
“Natalie will black out in workouts,” Hanley said of her now teammate at University of New Mexico. Bitetti smiled and laughed. “No, it’s literally happened,” Hanley insisted.
Photo by Jen Reagan
Prior to becoming teammates at UNM in 2024, Hanley and Bitetti each had standout careers in D3.
Following her graduation from the University of Arizona in 2023, Hanley started nursing school at Emory. During her two-year tenure, Hanley became a two-time All-American in cross country as well as a two-time second-team All-American in indoor track under the tutelage of Coach Linh Nguyen. Hanley also led the Eagles to a seventh place finish at cross country nationals in 2024, tying the program’s best ever finish on the national stage.
Likewise, Bitetti turned heads with her accolades at CMS, earning USTFCCCA west region Athlete of the Year in both 2021 and 2022. As the 2022 National Runner-Up in cross country, Bitetti left CMS with five first-team All-American honors and one second-team honor her senior outdoor season.
Together, Hanley and Bitetti have represented their D3 roots well in their time at UNM. Not only have both athletes lowered their personal records across the board, but both also made splashes on the national level, with Bitetti placing in the top 100 at the 2024 NCAA Division 1 Cross Country Championships and Hanley qualifying for NCAA Division 1 West first rounds in the 5k.
While Bitetti will toe the line for another cross country season this fall with the Lobos, Hanley has decided to hang up the spikes following a tumultuous career across a total of three schools and two divisions. In fact, Hanley did not anticipate continuing to run collegiately at all after transferring to Emory, and only found herself on the roster after asking if she could run with the team on occasion for the community aspect of sport.
“By the time I graduated (from University of Arizona), I was very burnt out mentally and emotionally.” Hanley said.
D1 for the Body, D3 for the Soul
Many D1 graduates leave competitive athletics with a similar distaste due to the rigors of student-athlete life with an athlete-first approach. On top of that, Hanley was dealt a significantly difficult hand with her health, overcoming both a life-threatening hip fracture and cancer diagnosis during her time at Arizona.
“During undergrad I had like four different assistant coaches and two head coaches,” Hanley said. “And then my personal life was messy because we had Covid happen and then my sophomore year, I got cancer.”
Running through chemotherapy not only tested Hanley’s endurance and love for the sport, but also presented other issues, such as low bone density, leaving her riddled with injury. In an interview with the Emory Wheel, Hanley shared that despite many people encouraging her to quit the sport entirely, maintaining her student-athlete status provided her an identity outside of her illness. Looking back, Hanley also praised the medical resources available to athletes at Arizona.
“When you’re in Division 1, you have so many resources,” Hanley said. “Like medical resources and money.”
Hanley’s experience with a hip fracture near a vital artery required an MRI, an orthopedic surgeon, and a trauma surgeon being in quick contact with each other, something Hanley isn’t sure would have been so seamless outside of Division 1.
“You don’t have those types of resources otherwise, not that I’ve seen.” Hanley said.
Differentiating Divisions
Collectively, Hanley and Bitetti note multiple differences across divisions, ranging from simple things such as cross training equipment to subjects of more magnitude, such as opportunities and the emphasis on time.
“[Coach Linh would] always say, ‘Time only matters in prison,’” Hanley said. “He’d always say that whenever we’d complain about the time, pace, or wanting a PR - and that’s stuff that our teammates at New Mexico talk about all the time.”
With the culture variances between divisions, Hanley and Bitetti note that many obsess over guessing what times will be required for participation in NCAA First Rounds and other championship meets, often taking away from the purity of pursuing titles.
“It’s like, ‘What’s gonna qualify this year?’ Even in cross country it’s like, ‘Oh, what time do you think will make it?’” Hanley said.
While D3 also requires competitive qualifying times, only taking the top 22 in each event to the national meet, D3 institutions also often see athletes of a wide variety of talents and abilities, generally due to the fact that such schools attract students for reasons beyond just athletic opportunities.
This allows for more prominent front-runners, frequently racing with a “do enough to win” mentality. With more “big fish in a small pond,” the pressure to PR at every meet is far lower for those at the top of the division. While this widespread range of abilities makes finding consistently competitive, cream-of-the-crop meets a challenge for small schools with standout athletes, it also allows athletes to remain fresher for quality efforts later in the season.
Hanley and Bitetti both noted the importance of team performance and being ready at the “right time” in D3, promoting the spirit of competition and pursuit of victory rather than a number on the clock.
“My coach, Marina (Muncan), would tell me ‘Okay, this race is for pacing Elle and Riley,’ or ‘This race is just for the win.’ Like just do enough to win and that's it. Don't do any more.”
Photo by Jen Reagan
Aside from simply preserving her body for championship season, Bitetti also felt this gave her a well of mental strength when she needed it most.
“I do think that willpower is a bit of a finite resource,” Bitetti said. “So I think that being able to get to the end of the season with other national caliber athletes, you really are like, ‘All right, I have to dig for this.’ It’s like, on the one hand, you've had less kind of mental practice of that, but on the other hand, you're just kind of hungry for that.”
Referencing herself, Bitetti, and WashU 800m standout Emma Kelley, Hanley feels that many D3 athletes simply lack the opportunities needed to run well-respected D1 times.
“It’s not as representative of what they could probably run if they had a D1 schedule.” Hanley said.
Other athletes, such as two-time D3 cross country national champion Alex Philip and D3 5k and steeple national champion Matthew Wilkinson also exemplify this transfer of talent. Phillip did a grad year at University of North Carolina after a fruitful campaign at John Carroll, while Wilkinson took his talents to Minnesota after four years in a Carleton jersey, and both saw significant improvements in their times when facing steeper competition.
Not only is the level of stable, quality competition enough to ensure fast times at every race of the season, but cross country courses cater to times as well, making D1 appear faster, thereby attracting more talent out of high school. Following her four years at Arizona, Hanley was taken aback by the far less pristine courses common in D3.
Photo by Ian Dopp
“Every course we ran that year being off of D1, I was like, ‘This is the hardest course!’ And it just kept getting worse every single one.” Hanley said.
In attracting athletes for primarily athletic reasons, D1 institutions also boast a multitude of international talent, further boosting times across the board. Bitetti shared that, in competing against national champions from other countries, runners become more likely to set time goals for themselves rather than aiming for victory.
“We’re all trying to set reasonable goals for ourselves and try to reach them,” Bitetti said. “And it’s just not a reasonable goal for someone of our caliber to become a national champion.”
Having international teammates with experience in the Diamond League adds a new layer of intensity to workouts, as such athletes often come to the NCAA to build a career for themselves in running.
“They are the best in their countries and they are kind of like professionals,” Hanley said, highlighting the influence of international athletes on their training group. Hanley remarked these athletes often bring gels, electrolytes, and multiple pairs of shoes - a far cry from the single pair of trusty trainers many D3 athletes know and love.
Where Divisions Collide
Gear aside, the ability to compensate athletes with better scholarships and athletic aid further attracts talent to D1 institutions. While this is a blessing to many athletes seeking higher education, it often kills the purity of sport, encouraging athletes to “play for pay” rather than passion. In Hanley’s experience, she’s found that many athletes allow their scholarships to give them a sense of monetary worth, thereby tying their performance to personal value.
“Your worth is running and I feel like there's a lot of behind-the-scenes weird money things,” Hanley said. “With your worth, your self image, you can't focus on recovering from your injury or finding your love for the sport again.”
Growing up reliant on a softball scholarship, Bitetti acknowledged how powerful scholarships could be (in any division) in funding an individual’s education, though scholarships seem to have deviated from this purpose.
“D1 was a way to afford college, which is life changing,” Bitetti said. “But now, I think it's gotten so, so, so hard to get recruited straight out of high school with a large scholarship unless you're literally like Jane Hedengren.”
Unless students need to take out extravagant loans, Bitetti feels high schoolers should remain open to attending D3 institutions, pursuing scholarships through whatever other routes possible, especially academic.
While athletic scholarships could greatly change the landscape of D3, scholarships and the implementation of roster limits in D1 will likely inadvertently do so. Talent previously of the D1 caliber will likely be forced to other divisions. Furthermore, Hanley believes athletes won’t want the pressure to maintain their athlete status.
“These roster limits are going to be brutal,” Hanley said. “I never would have been able to run Division 1 or walk on with the current roster limits.”
Growth and Development Across Divisions
Ultimately, high schoolers choosing between schools and divisions have much to consider. Both Hanley and Bitetti feel their experiences in D3 allowed them to gain a better understanding of their bodies and the training that went on to serve them at UNM.
Photo by Jen Reagan
“I think, coming to New Mexico, had I not done my stint at Emory, I would have just continued to break.” Hanley said.
Throughout her time at CMS, Bitetti felt her relationship with running continued to deepen as she gained knowledge regarding the sport and her training.
“I think that I’ve had the luxury of falling into love with the sport at my own pace,” Bitetti said. “I never felt like I was pushed or forced into anything.”
Though now the rigorous D1 racing schedule and concentrated talent at meets has forced Bitetti to learn and adapt quickly, leading to some overtraining injuries in the spring, she continues to learn about herself as a runner.
“I think part of it is this interaction between the demands of D1, but I'm also not a person that usually needs to be pushed more. Like, I need to be pulled back in general.” Bitetti said, “But that's not the environment that's gonna do that.”
Even so, Bitetti understands that this is a learning process she and her coach, Darren Gauson, have embarked upon together.
“This was my first year with him and it was just kind of like, we’re both ‘learning me,’” Bitetti said. “So, I mean I’m definitely going into this season entirely differently.”
Despite her struggles, Bitetti remains driven to continue finding just what makes her tick in the sport, acknowledging this might vary depending on the stage of life she is in.
“Running will wait for you!” Bitetti said. “Your ‘why’ will change, and I think you should let that evolution happen.”
Photo by Jen Reagan
Similarly, Hanley feels that finding things outside of running that allow individuals to ride the highs and lows will help them maintain a process focused approach, yielding long-term success and fulfillment.
“It’s kind of about planting a seed wherever you go, either growing as a person, forming relationships, changing the sport, surprising yourself - anything that’s bigger than a number on TFRRS to be honest. That’s what’s going to stick with you and those around you,” Hanley said.
To those chasing records, those chasing wins, and those chasing joy, may we never forget the joy, freedom, and opportunities running provides in the world - in college and beyond. After all, “time only matters in prison.”