By Kirk Hardcastle, NIACC Sports Information –
MASON CITY – Anna Buenneke made her mark on the NIACC athletic program.
Buenneke was a two-time all-American in cross country. She holds school records in the 4-kilometer, 5K, 6K and half-marathon.
She was also a national champion in the 3,000-meter run and the 5,000 during the 2011 indoor track and field season.
NIACC also made its mark on Buenneke, who is set for begin her senior season at Iowa State.
“Listening to coach (Curtis Vais), it felt like I never left,” said Buenneke, who was on the NIACC campus Thursday. “I had an opportunity to speak with the team a little bit and shared some of my experiences with them.
“Just being back here today really feels like a déjà vu moment. It makes me a little homesick. I’m really glad where I’m at not, but this is great. They have a great thing going.”
Buenneke, who placed second at the NJCAA cross country meet in 2011 and placed eighth at nationals in 2010, said she shared with the 2013 team lessons she learned from Vais during her time at NIACC.
“Things I know now that I wish I would have known then,” she said. “Things that I could have implanted then so I could have been faster.
“I really think it starts your freshman year. It really begins your first year of college and you just build on that.”
Buenneke (Oelwein, Ia.) said she started out running 35 miles a week during her freshman season at NIACC.
Heading into her senior season at Iowa State, Buenneke is logging between 85 and 90 miles a week.
“It’s all a progression,” she said. “The whole season is a progression. You want to finish faster than you started at.”
As a junior at Iowa State in 2012, Buenneke ran a personal best time of 22 minutes, 11.2 seconds at the Big 12 cross country meet. She was an alternate on the Cyclone team that placed 11th at last year’s NCAA meet.
Buenneke says she has high hopes for her senior season.
“I have a lot of goals going into it,” she said. “I want to run at Big 12s, regionals and nationals.
“I have a lot of time goals that I want to hit. I really want to have some opportunities when I graduate to run for a team post-college or do a lot of marathon running- that’s my future dream goal. As a team, I’d like our team to be in the top three at nationals.”
Buenneke said a key to a successful senior season at Iowa State is to be injury free.
She said that wasn’t always the case during her time at NIACC, but she took the responsibility for that.
“Looking back, it was due to me not listening to our trainer Mark Vrba and or not eating right or sleeping right and over training,” she said. “If I would have listened then, it would have made me a better athlete.”
Buenneke said she had a healthy junior season at Iowa State and has been healthy all summer.
“It was a result of listening to the things Coach Vais was telling me all along,” she said. “The things you know you should be doing, but sometimes as a college student, you forget about the importance of sleep, eating and nutrition. The other 22 hours of the day are a huge part that really determine if you are injured or not.”
Buenneke said she is on target to graduate in the spring with a degree in marketing.
“I’d really like to coach high school on the side,” she said, “and have a job in sports marketing, ag marketing or sales.”
Buenneke said she gives a lot of credit to the people at NIACC for putting her on the right track.
“I loved it,” she said. “I got really close to a lot of people in the admissions office as I was an ambassador.
“I stopped in and visited with all of them and the other coaches. Coach Vais has been a mentor to me. Whenever I need advice, I give him a call. He’s like a father figure to me and so is (assistant coach) Curt (Krieger). Just coming back here, it’s always been in my heart. This is still home to me and I always feel welcome here. Everyone that influenced me here, got me where I am today.”
