Nora Pizzella seems to be hitting her stride at just the right time. The junior from Grass Valley ran her best race of the season at Saturday’s California Collegiate Athletic Association Championships, finishing fourth to earn All-CCAA honors for the second time in three years, along with Wildcat of the Week accolades.
The 2016 CCAA Freshman of the Year and seventh-place finisher at those CCAA Championships, Pizzella covered Saturday’s six-kilometer course in 21:34.5, setting a new cross country personal record for the distance.
She finished behind only teammates Karlie Garcia and Alexandria Tucker, and less than three seconds behind Cal State San Marcos’ Lisa Flora. The Wildcats won the event going away, placing four of the first five student-athletes across the finish line, to win their 11th straight CCAA championship.
A little slow out of the gates this season, Pizzella placed 38th in Sacramento and 69th in Santa Clara before racing to an impressive seventh-place finish at the Oct. 20 Triton Classic.
Saturday, Pizzella was eighth at the race’s halfway point, picked up three spots during the late stages of the race, and passed Cal State East Bay’s top runner down the stretch, seemingly getting stronger as she went.
Pizzella and the Wildcats will next run at the NCAA West Regional Championships in Billings, Montana, on Nov. 17.
