With sweep at California Division 1 state final, dynamic duo helps Buchanan secure first NXN girls berth

By Erik Boal, DyeStat Editor

Buchanan High has celebrated California state girls cross country individual and team titles, produced team qualifiers in both genders at Nike Cross Nationals and had multiple athletes earn All-America honors at the annual championship in Portland, Ore.

But never have the Bears, or few teams in the 14-year history of NXN, boasted such a prominent pair as sophomore Corie Smith and junior Meagen Lowe.

For the ninth time at the California state championship meet, and just the second time in Division 1, girls teammates swept the top two spots in a division final at Woodward Park when Smith won the 5-kilometer race Saturday in 17 minutes, 16.7 seconds and Lowe delivered a late surge to secure second in 17:19.8 on their home course in Fresno.

“It’s just amazing to place first and second in the state with one of my best friends. I just dug down and fought so hard, and I didn’t know I had that in me to go at the end like that and to pull that off and finish how I did,” Lowe said. “It just shows how much we’ve worked this year and how much we’ve improved from last year when we got fourth and sixth and we ran together the whole way. This year we worked off each other again and we just kept fighting and we both ran like 15 seconds faster than we did last year.”

It marked the fastest performances by teammates in the 31-year history of the state final. Only Oak Ridge High senior twins Maddy and Elena Denner have run faster in the same race at Woodward Park, when they placed first and third in 16:58.7 and 17:18.1 – with Smith in between at 17:05.3 – in the championship race Oct. 7 at the Clovis Invitational.

Although Maddy Denner didn’t race in Saturday’s final because of a leg injury, both Smith and Lowe finished in front of Elena Denner to produce the first Division 1 sweep by teammates since Agoura’s Amy Skieresz and Kay Nekota in 1993, leading Buchanan to a second-place finish behind Great Oak and the first NXN girls qualifying berth in program history.

“I still haven’t gotten over it. I focused more on our team and how we got second and people keep congratulating me and I’m like, ‘Oh wait, I won.’ It’s an amazing feeling of utter disbelief,” said Smith, who became Buchanan’s first state champion since Hagen Reedy in 2011.

“It’s insane to know that everyone out here is just as good and we’re all so close together time-wise, PR-wise, ability-wise and to come out here and beat this amazing group of girls is crazy. Knowing I have two more years to come out here and run faster and better is just amazing. It really just shows how much we’ve grown as teammates and as runners ourselves.”

In addition to targeting Reedy’s seventh-place national finish achieved six years ago, Smith and Lowe also have an opportunity to join other terrific tandems in NXN history.

Since individual qualifiers were added to the event in 2008 when the competition shifted from Nike Team Nationals to NXN, only three times have female teammates placed together in the top 10.

Fayetteville-Manlius NY holds the record with Christie Rutledge, Katie Sischo and Jillian Fanning finishing second, fourth and sixth in 2010, the only time three athletes from the same girls team have achieved the feat. The other two occasions were when sisters accomplished the goal, first Kathleen and Joanna Stevens of Blacksburg VA taking second and ninth in 2009, followed by Megan and Bethany Hasz of Alexandria MN finishing fifth and ninth in 2014.

“We’ve been working for this since I was a freshman. We’ve gotten fourth and third and now second (in Division 1), to see the progress we’ve had, we’re all super excited to see where we could end up,” Lowe said. “I feel like when you go through the hardest workouts with each other, you have that bond because you’re with each other at your most vulnerable points. To have someone with you in that race that understands where you are mentally and you can work off each other and push each other, I feel like that’s something really amazing that not a lot of teams get to go through. It’s a great experience.”

Smith and Lowe also experienced history together Sept. 16 at the Woodbridge Cross Country Classic in Norco, Calif., becoming the first teammates since 2003 to take the top two spots in the Bob Day girls sweepstakes race, leading the Bears to their first team championship since 2005.

Smith (15:58.4) and Lowe (15:59.3) also joined two-time NXN champion Sarah Baxter, a 2014 Simi Valley CA graduate, and reigning NXN winner Brie Oakley of Grandview CO as the only female athletes in the meet’s 37-year history to run under 16 minutes on any of the event’s 3-mile courses.

“It’s really hard to comprehend because those are really big names that you here everywhere. To be thrown in with those people is amazing actually and it just shows how much better we can get. It’s really unbelievable,” Smith said. “You know while you’re out there that it’s a big race, but there’s always going to be a bigger one coming up. The experience really helps compose yourself after big meets like that to get ready for the next one.”

That composure and consistency have helped the Bears be represented at NXN for the first time since 2012 when Reedy placed 20th to earn her second All-America honor. It also marks the first time a Buchanan team will compete in Portland since a ninth-place boys finish in 2008, led by Jonathan Sanchez taking 18th overall.

“It’s something that has been one of our goals the whole year to get up to Portland and anytime you see them get their goals, that’s my reward as a coach,” Buchanan coach Brian Weaver said. “You want your athletes to experience things that may not ever happen, so it’s truly a special time for them.”

After Smith won the CIF Central Section Division 1 crown last year, it was a memorable moment for the Buchanan program Nov. 16 when Lowe added her name to the Bears’ legacy of individual champions by capturing the title in 17:18.3 at Woodward Park. Smith was second in 17:27.1, helping Buchanan win its 19th section championship in 24 years.

“Usually up until the last 800, I’m like, ‘We can run together because if we leave each other, we’re going to be by ourselves anyways, so we might as well push each other,’” Lowe said. “The last 800 is where we’re not friends anymore. It’s like, ‘this is where we’ve got to go, this is where we’re competitors and not teammates.’ But I feel like it goes both ways with that.”

Although both athletes have won races the past two years without the other’s presence, Lowe and Smith acknowledge they’d much rather compete together whenever possible, running side by side for as long as they can until it becomes a race to the finish during the final straightaway.

“It’s good because it teaches you how to push yourself, but at the same time, I love running with Meagen because she’s always the comfort factor,” Smith said. “I really want to push myself for her. I know if I’m pushing myself, then she’s pushing herself and I don’t want to let her down. We both have to make sure that every day, every practice and every race is counting.”

Lowe continues to count her blessings that she has been able to share such a memorable season of experiences and achievements, not just with Smith and sophomore Amanda Dolberg, but especially with seniors Alyssa DeStasio, Sydney Fox, Clare Hernandez and Katie Nili.

“You know how fast it can go away, so just enjoying every moment in your races is so important because this could all be taken away from you,” Lowe said. “It makes you want to work even harder to do it for them.”

A year after California didn’t have a female competitor earn All-America honors – awarded to the top 21 finishers in each gender – for the first time in meet history, Smith and Lowe are motivated to not only secure their places among the elite individuals in the country, but also give Buchanan an opportunity to join Great Oak, Davis Senior and Saugus among the state’s historic programs to make the NXN girls podium.

“The whole thing is people coming together, on a team, in schooling and in life,” Weaver said. “The whole idea of them getting better throughout the season is what’s really important, so we’re excited about the opportunity.”