Berkeley Springs Indians

Three Time State Champ

Three-Peat
By Kip Shallis

Rachel Buser is no stranger to awards and titles. The talented junior has won almost every race she has entered since her freshman season. With all the success and hype surrounding Rachel it is refreshing to see an athlete truly put the team in front of individual attention.
Buser first burst onto the cross country scene in the fall of 2004. In the third race of Rachel's freshman year she won her first race and it has been gold medals ever since. Here is a run down of some of Rachel's accomplishments.
Rachel has dominated the class AA cross country scene in West Virginia. She is a three time state champion in cross country. During track Rachel has won six gold medals and one silver medal at the state track meet. If that is not enough, during Rachel's freshman year she placed third out of 175 in the national cross country race held in Rhode Island.
Rachel has won every individual accolade an athlete can achieve. When I first asked Rachel about striving for her third consecutive title she was quick to point out her main concern was defending their team state championship. "I am confident if I run my race I will be in position to win the race. I am hoping that our entire team can be close to the front so we can repeat as the team champions; that is very important for me," says Buser.
The Indians fell short of their team title, finishing in second place. Buser continued her dominance by placing first with a time of 20:07 in very muddy conditions.
Winning an individual title in any sport is a difficult task both physically and mentally! Being the favorite of every event and expecting to win the title is a whole other kind of pressure! "Rachel welcomes competition and excels when challenged. I think the fear of losing really pushes Rachel to be the dominant athlete she is," states Coach Rowland, Rachel's coach of three years. "In my twenty years of coaching cross country in the tri-state area I have not seen a more dominant female than Rachel."
Rachel is quick to point out that her success has been the result of a lot of hard work and the help from her coaches and teammates. "Coach Rowland is a great coach. He pushes us very hard every day and holds us to very high standards," states Buser.
Training has played a major role in the success of Rachel and her teammates. "My off-season conditioning and training in practice is very similar. I try to do 30-50 miles a week of running mixed in with occasional track work with sprints." That training has paid off considering Rachel has only lost four races in three years of running cross country.
Rachel wasn't always a star; as a middle school student Rachel dreamed of being a cross country runner at Berkeley Springs. During her eighth grade year she helped keep stats for the varsity team and saw first hand what it took to be successful in athletics. Three years later Rachel has accomplished her goal and taken her dream to the next level.
Next season Rachel will hope to become a four time state cross country champion. If this can happen Buser will become the second person to accomplish this goal in the history of the West Virginia.
After researching Rachel Buser's success and meeting her for the first time I came away very impressed with her talent and dominance in the sport of cross country. What I am most impressed with is Rachel's humble nature and how she has mastered the art of staying focused on her team in primarily an individual sport.

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