With every meet during the 2023 track & field season, Marissa D’Atri finds a way to add a little more to her undisputed status as one of the top women’s distance runners in Chico State history. At the APU Franson Last Chance meet, the Bay Area native was at it again, delivering a superlative performance in the 5,000-meter run and breaking a program record that had stood for 18 years. Her latest in a long string of outstanding accomplishments makes D’Atri the latest Wildcat of the Week.
D’Atri finished second in the meet’s 5k, stopping the clock at 16:14.67, improving her existing NCAA Provisional qualifying mark by nearly 16 seconds. More importantly, the time topped (by over 10 seconds) the Wildcat women’s 5k record set in 2005 by Katie Lee. The effort was the ninth-fastest 5k time in all of Division II, essentially assuring D’Atri a berth in the upcoming NCAA Track & Field Championships.
Earlier in the season, D’Atri posted a Provisional mark in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with the third-fastest D-II time in the event in 2023, while also notching a Provisional time in the 1,500-meter run. And if that wasn’t enough, she won both the 5k and steeplechase crowns for the second straight year at the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) Track & Field Championships.
D’Atri, who has earned All-America honors in both cross country and track during her Wildcat career, will get the chance for even more national recognition May 25–27 as one of the Chico State athletes competing at the NCAA Track & Field Championships in Pueblo, Colorado.
