Buffalo Babes rock at the AAU Junior Olympics!

Joe Hartman's pictures!  Race photos    Fun photos from the trip!

By Joe Hartman
     The Buffalo Babes – a part of the Buffalo Chips Running Club – went on their annual excursion to the Junior Olympics in 2006, but this time with a couple different twists. For starters the team decided to support the AAU Junior Olympics as opposed to the USATF version, for various reasons. Secondly, after battling sleet in Atlanta, near-hurricane force winds in Providence, and record snows in New England and New York City in recent years, the Buffalo Babes were, at long last, headed to a warm-weather destination.

      The site for the 2006 AAU Junior Olympics was Disney’s Wide World of Sports complex in the 47-square mile Walt Disney World resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, only a few miles from the Magic Kingdom. The sports complex is home to dozens of flat, well-drained and well-manicured football, baseball, soccer fields and a 400 meter all-weather track. Cracker Jack Stadium is also there, home to the Atlanta Braves during spring training.

      The eighteen Buffalo Babes from Northern California included four girls from Folsom High School, three from St. Francis and Mt. Shasta (NS), two from Del Oro, and six from other SJS high schools. In the Young Women’s age group (born in ’88-’89) the runners were Katie Fritzke. of Mt Shasta, Ashley Silva of Oak Ridge, Kelsey Croall of Lincoln, Merie Paddeck and Nicole Bowler of Del Oro, Shelly Pugh and Casey O’Day of Folsom, and Amy Lackner of St. Francis.

      The Intermediate Girl’s team (born in ’90-’91) consisted of Nicole Mendoza of St. Francis, Danzel Bradshaw of Fairfield, Morgan Pugh and Maria Malone of Folsom, Lindsey Dubs of Vacaville, Alex Ciaraglia of Woodcreek, Hillary Kigar of El Camino, and Natalie Sojka and Cynthia Laiacona of Mt. Shasta. One other athlete – Maureen May of St Francis - ran in the Youth Girls age group ('92 only).

      After getting familiar with the course on Friday – and somewhat acclimated to the humidity - the girls arrived at the course early Saturday morning for the opening race at 8 am. The 5K course wound through the Disney sports field for the first mile, and then disappeared back into a tropical forest for nearly a mile and a half before looping through the sports fields to the finish. The biggest hill on the whole course may have been the finish line. The surface was superb for running: equal parts firm grass and dirt/grass trails with some sandy patches, but not too many. Combined with the excitement of a national race, the times were going to be especially fast. No rain was in the forecast and the high school races would be in the relative cool of the morning.

       The first Buffalo Babes team to race was the Young Women’s team. The Buffalo Babes had won three years in a row at this age group at the USATF JO’s but the Brocaw Blazers, a highly organized and competitive team from Kansas, were too strong. Even though the Buffalo Babes put eight runners in front of their fifth, the Blazers ‘A’ team defeated the Buffalo Babes 55-59. Heather Garcia, the Kansas state 4A champion this year, won the race for the Blazers in a time of 17:54. Buffalo Babe results:

6 Fritzke, Katie Buffalo Chips, Mt. Shasta 5:56.0 18:25.90 6
11 Silva, Ashley Buffalo Chips, El Dorado Hills 6:03.0 18:47.65 9
16 Croall, Kelsey Buffalo Chips, Newcastle 6:10.2 19:10.11 12
20 O’Day, Casey Buffalo Chips, Folsom 6:12.9 19:18.37 15
22 Paddeck, Merie Buffalo Chips, Lincoln 6:14.7 19:24.00 17
24 Pugh, Shelly Buffalo Chips, Folsom 6:16.7 x19:30.23 18
26 Bowler, Nicole Buffalo Chips, Loomis 6:17.4 x19:32.35 19
27 Lackner, Amy Buffalo Chips, Folsom 6:17.6 x19:33.11

     
       In the next girl’s race, the Buffalo Babe Intermediate Girls had seen the strength and depth of the Blazers and knew they were going to have to be at their best. And indeed they were. Nicole Mendoza and Maria Malone stayed with the leader for as long as they could and held on for second and third place. Malone and Natalie Sojka – who only ran in two races between them during September and October due to tender legs – had to love the forgiving surface and both finished in the top ten. Nicole Mendoza became the second highest Buffalo Babe JO finisher ever with her national runner-up placing. Caitlin Chock remains the only Buffalo Babe champion, winning the Youth Girls race in Reno, Nevada in 2000. This year’s winner was Kaitlin Cherry of Jenks America in Oklahoma who had a time of 17:46. Katelin was the runner-up at the Oklahoma state 5A race with the 6th fastest time of the day. The Buffalo Babes results were:

2 Mendoza, Nicole Buffalo Chips, Folsom 5:47.7 18:00.10 2
3 Malone, Maria Buffalo Chips, Folsom 5:48.4 18:02.40 3
5 Bradshaw, Danzel Buffalo Chips, Fairfield 5:56.3 18:26.90 5
7 Kigar, Hillary Buffalo Chips, Citrus Heights 5:56.4 18:27.30 6
10 Sojka, Natalie Buffalo Chips, Mt. Shasta 6:01.1 18:41.90 9
15 Laiacona, Cynthia Buffalo Chips, Mt. Shasta 6:06.6 x18:59.00 14
21 Dubs, Lindsey Buffalo Chips, Vacaville 6:12.1 x19:15.90 17
29 Ciaraglia, Alex Buffalo Chips, Roseville 6:18.1 x19:34.50
30 Pugh, Morgan Buffalo Chips, Folsom 6:18.9 19:37.10

        The Intermediate Girls Buffalo Babes, who put five in the top ten and scored only 25 points, won for the fifth year in a row at the Junior Olympics, a statistic that didn’t slip past Channel 3/NBC in Sacramento who reported it on their evening news. Lakeland, Florida was second with a total of 92 points.

        The Buffalo Babes had one representative in the 4K Youth Girls race. Maureen May of St. Francis was in 13th place with about 600 meters to go and launched one of her monster kicks (ala the Ed Sias frosh/soph race) to pass several runners on the finishing straightaway to move all the way up to fourth place and a spot on the podium with a time of 15:48. May was 27 seconds behind the national champion in this age group Lillian Greibesland of Wave AC, Warwick, NY.

         Considering the Buffalo Babes had 17 runners in the two 5K races, the 1:37 gap for all the Buffalo Babes was pretty small. Nearly everyone established a new 5K personal record on the certified, blazing-fast course. The 2006 team had more girls finish in the Top 25 (14) than any previous year.

         Most of the next day and a half was mostly spent either poolside in the mid-80’s weather or having a blast at one of the Disneyworld theme parks, such as Disney MGM Studios, Epcot Center, or - of course - the Magic Kingdom. Considering the weather, the meet organization, the competition, and the magic of Disney, it was the best Junior Olympics trip ever for the Buffalo Babes.

         The Buffalo Babes were well-prepared for the meet thanks to John Ducray at St. Francis HS, Steve Nesheim at Mt Shasta, Dave Gregson of Folsom, Kevin Ostenburg of Del Oro, Kay Nekota of Vacaville, Terry McKillop of Woodcreek, Jason Jimenez of El Camino, Dave Monk of Fairfield, Doug Croall of Lincoln, and Rob Fairley of Oak Ridge. The coach of the Buffalo Babes at the JO's – making quite an impressive debut herself – was Priscilla Moreno, a recent runner/graduate of Oak Ridge High School and UC Davis.

         The next AAU Junior Olympics for cross country will be at Virginia Beach, Virginia in early December of 2007. Prior to that there will be a West Coast Junior Olympics at UC Davis in a variety of sports, including track and field from June 22nd to July 1st , 2007. Further information can be obtained from Guy Fowler (Tulare, CA) at [email protected] or 1-559-358-0850. Information on all of AAU’s youth sports programs and how to join AAU can be found at www.aauathletics.org .