Esperanza’s Buche Moves to Four-Front in 800

It’s a grand achievement for anyone who qualifies for the Southern Section Masters track and field meet. It’s twice as special for those who come back a second time.

Then there are athletes like Maribeth Buche, an Esperanza senior, whose attendance has been perfect all four years.

Buche will compete in the 800 meters for the fourth consecutive season tonight at Cerritos College. She’s also scheduled to run a leg on the Aztecs’ 1,600-meter relay. Field events begin at 4:30 p.m.; the first running event starts at 6.

The top five finishers in each event will advance to the state finals June 1-2 at Sacramento City College, as will any finisher who meets a qualifying standard. Buche would like to cap her high school career with a trip to the state meet, where she last competed in 1999.

“I’m a lot further along, time-wise, than I was my sophomore year,” said Buche, who signed with UCLA on Wednesday. “I have more confidence in my ability [to qualify for state] and, at the same time, have higher expectations.”

Expectations have been lofty since Buche recorded victories in the 400 and 800 at the Sunset League finals her freshman season. She came back to finish third in the 800 at the section Division I finals, covering the two-lap race in 2 minutes 14.12 seconds, the county’s fastest time in 1998.

Buche ran cross-country for the first time during the fall of her sophomore year, helping the Aztecs win their first Orange County team title and finish second in Division I and state. But the experience also led to bouts with allergies and anemia.

It wasn’t until midway through Buche’s sophomore track season that she began feeling strong again. She rose to the occasion at the Sunset League finals, winning the 400, 800 and 1,600 races, then pulling away on the final backstretch to win the 1,600 relay.

Buche later finished third in Division I and Masters, qualifying for state with a time of 2:14.29.

Buche continued to run cross-country, despite struggling with allergies, and came into her junior season feeling flat once again. She struggled to break 2:17 all season, and her season ended with a last-place finish at Masters in 2:24.59.

Buche came into her senior track season with renewed vigor and medication to relieve her allergies.

She won the 800 at the county championships and ran the final leg on the winning 1,600 relay team, helping the Aztecs run away with the team title. Then Buche smashed her lifetime best at the Division I preliminaries two weeks ago, producing the top qualifying time of 2:12.63, a school record.

She followed up with a second-place finish at the finals Saturday.

Marina senior Vanessa Kelly missed qualifying for tonight’s 1,600 by just over a second Saturday, but when Corona del Mar’s Julie Allen and Palos Verdes Peninsula’s Emily Vince scratched from the event to concentrate on the 3,200, it opened the door for Kelly’s first Masters appearance.

Tustin’s Alonso Smith opted out of the 1,600, where he won a Division II title, to focus on the 800. His vacancy opened a spot for Nick Arciniaga of Fountain Valley.