Buffalo Babes Do It Again

The Buffalo Babes, an elite team of northern California high school girls representing the Buffalo Chips Running Club, traveled 3000 miles last weekend and won the national team title at the USA Cross Country Championships.  Held in New York City, the race was part of USA Track and Field?s qualifying process for the IAAF World Cross Country Championships.  The top six individuals in six different races over the weekend earned the right to represent America in April in Fukuoka, Japan.  The meet was televised on ESPN 2.

            The Junior Women?s team title was the first championship for the Buffalo Chips at this event.  The Sacramento-based club narrowly edged two-time defending national champions Dallas Metroplex Striders by a score of 18-19 (low score wins). The Buffalo Babes have previously won seven national titles over the last four years at the USATF Junior Olympics held in December.

            Team members consisted of seniors Mo Huber (17, Acalanes H.S.), Katie Voigtlander (18, Burlingame H.S.), Caprice Bradshaw (18, Fairfield H.S.), Cecily Lemmon (17, Vacaville H.S.), Yasmine White (16, Arcata H.S.) and junior Maritza Garcia (17, Riverbank H.S.)

            For most of these young women, it was the most competitive cross country race of their lives.  The race not only featured some of the very best high school runners from across the nation but also included many college freshmen under the age of 20 who were more familiar with racing at the six-kilometer distance. 

            The course consisted of three two-kilometer loops and was contested at one of the sports most famous venues: Van Cortlandt Park in New York City.  Volunteers, on behalf of the New York Road Runners club, worked nonstop to clear 26 inches of snow which only five days earlier had brought the Big Apple to a virtual standstill.  That coordinated effort, along with two days of 50-degree weather, removed most of the snow and led to reliable footing.

            On race day, the weather began mostly sunny but the temperature was 35 degrees - at best - and the accompanying brisk winds put the wind chill factor in the high teens.  Eight minutes into the Junior Women?s race the Buffalo Babes were greeted with this bit of unwelcome Bronx cheer: the temperature dropped noticeably, skies darkened, and driving snow enveloped the park.  The squall hampered the runners for the final two laps, but ironically receded just moments after the Junior Women?s race had ended.

            Garcia, Huber, and Voigtlander got off to strong starts for the Buffalo Babes but Samantha Means and Kinsey Farren of the Metroplex Striders were about 100 yards ahead after the first loop.  Dallas seemed assured of a third straight team title unless one of the other Buffalo Babes would be able to fight through the snow and do something special.  For this race, the best four runners for each team were involved in the scoring.

            White, at 16 the youngest on the team and a member of USA Triathlon?s junior world team in 2005, paced herself perfectly in the early going and began her charge just as the snow arrived.  She soon joined the other three Buffalo Babes and that group of four maintained their pace over the second half of the race and finished only 25 seconds apart.

            Aside from their fine race performance, the Buffalo Babes were able to meet some of the elite runners around the nation and sightsee in Manhattan over the holiday weekend.  Some of their activities included seeing a hilarious Off-Broadway musical, touring CBS News Studios and the United Nations, going to the top of the Rockefeller Center for a great view of New York, and browsing at Tiffany?s, Trump Plaza, and other stores.

            The team consisted of many of the top distance runners in Northern California, all of whom had racked up impressive credentials on the high school cross country circuit.  Garcia was the 2005 California state cross country champion in Division 4.  Huber was the Division 3 state runner-up marking it the third time she finished in the Top 10 in the most competitive state in the union.  White took fourth place in the state in 2004 and was the 2005 North Coast Section champion in her division.

            Lemmon was a four-time Sacramento Bee All-Metro first team selection in cross country and the Division 2 Sac-Joaquin Section runner-up twice.  Voigtlander, an excellent skier, was 15^th in the state and the Central Coast Section Division 3 runner-up.  Bradshaw was 9^th in the state in Division 1 last year and the Sac-Joaquin Section runner-up in 2004.

The six runners for the Buffalo Babes finished in the following order:

• 26^th place, Maritza Garcia, Riverbank H.S., 22:27,
• 29^th place, Yasmine White, Arcata H.S., 22:34,
• 30^th place, Mo Huber, Acalanes H.S. 22:45, 
• 31^st place, Katie Voigtlander, Burlingame H.S., 22:52,
• 36^th place, Caprice Bradshaw, Fairfield H.S. 24:12,
• 37^th place, Cecily Lemmon, Vacaville H.S., 24:13.

            Nicole Blood, 17, of Saratoga Springs, NY, led a tight pack of six world qualifiers to the wire.  Her time was 20:45.   Also qualifying for the world meet in Japan in the Junior Women?s division (and finishing within three seconds of each other) were: 2^nd place, McKayla Plank, 18, Iona College; 3^rd place, Kauren Tarver, 15, Serrano H.S. (CA); 4^th place, Merie Lawrence, 16, Reno H.S. (NV); 5^th place, Erin Bedell, 18, Baylor University; 6^th place, Madison McKeever, 19, Duke University.  Blood is a two-time winner of the FootLocker Northeast Regional and will soon relocate to Royal High School in southern California.

                        PICS FROM THEIR NEW YORK TRIP