Sports teams all over the campus look for every way to raise money to fund their endeavours. From speedo car washes, to the more popular coupon booklets, athletic teams do everything they can to fundraise.

For the Cross Country team, they needed to look no further than their own sport to help raise money for meet admissions. The Buffalo Chips Stampede is a forty year old 10 mile race for all age groups. The race is mostly targeted towards dedicated runners training for their fall half marathons or marathons and is perfect for that purpose.

The team’s purpose in the Stampede, however, is not to run in it, but to run it. The event donates money to multiple organizations and the Cross Country team is one of the top recipients of the hundreds of dollars the race makes.

With thousands of runners waking up much too early every year to run around the american river bike trail as well as American River Drive, water stations are needed often to keep the participants hydrated.

The team stationed itself just beyond the mile marker and enthusiastically handed small cups of water to their thirsty friends. After the last of the runners scuttled by, the team quickly packed up and hussled back to the finish line where they equipped themselves with shiny metals to hand out to the tired runners crossing the finishing line.

When asked why she would get up so early to award sweaty adults with participation metals, Blythe Nishi said, “I do it because it supports the cross country team, and though it doesn’t seem very enjoyable, when you’re with your friends and goofing around with the cheesy pump-up music it can actually be very fun.”

Her teammates had similar exuberant responses.

Coach Gordon Hubble has been participating in the event for over 20 years, and says “There aren’t as many people as there used to be, but the excitement is still the same.”

Over the years the team has done just about every aspect of the race from handing out waters, to running the kids half-mile race, to handing out medals.

The race donates various amounts of money over the years to the team, and as the number one organization they donate to, the team has gotten between 350 and 700 dollars for just a short time helping out their fellow runners.

The real excitement for some members isn’t the race, but instead the annual tradition of going out to breakfast at a waffle house afterwards.

“It’s really fun to go out to breakfast with the team, it’s sort of a bonding experience and it’s fun to see everyone outside of their running gear.” said senior Juliette Stoltz.