Dec. 6, 2005
On November 21, Columbia's Caroline Bierbaum finished second of 253 runners in the NCAA Cross Country Championships, the second straight season that she finished among the top three in the sport's premier event.
And for the second straight year, she has been nominated for the Honda Sports Award, which is awarded to the nation's outstanding women's collegiate cross country competitor.
Bierbaum is one of four finalists for the award, which is determined by voting conducted among all NCAA senior woman administrators. Her competition, as it did last year, consists of the three women who finished in the top four with her at the NCAA meet.
Junior Johanna Nilsson of Northern Arizona University, the NCAA champion with a record-breaking 19:33.9, 12.1 seconds faster than Bierbaum's 19:46.0; senior Stephanie Madia of Notre Dame, third in 19:48.4; and senior Victoria Mitchell of Butler University, fourth in 19:50.4, are the other finalists.
Last season, the Columbia College senior from the East Side of Manhattan had been a finalist with Kim Smith of Providence, who was chosen for the honor, Renee Metevier of Colorado and Laura Turner of Brigham Young.
"It is a great honor," Columbia head coach Willy Wood said, "for Caroline to be named one of the four Honda Cross Country Award finalists. Her nomination is a testament to her incredible athletic achievement.
"Even more so, her consistency has been amazing. In fact, she is the only current finalist to appear on the ballot twice. Caroline finished her college cross country career with two top-three national finishes."
Bierbaum earned All-American honors with her second-place finish, her fifth All-American accomplishment. She had earned All-American in cross country for Columbia last season, in the same sport for Duke in 2002, and in both indoor and outdoor track during the past winter and spring.
Bierbaum's rise to prominence is a story of a courageous comeback. A standout cross country runner at the Groton School in Massachusetts, she spent one year at Duke and then returned home to Manhattan, transferring to Columbia in 2003. She ran only one varsity race for the Lions, though, due to low iron levels. She didn't return to running until the summer of 2004, following a change in her medication, but did not expect to be ready for Columbia's cross country season.
However, a strong summer of work, and success in local fall races, convinced her to rejoin the Columbia team in October, after the Lions' season had begun. She won her first race, the sub-varsity Lafayette Invitational, on October 16, and two weeks later became the first Columbia woman ever to win the Ivy Heptagonal Championship.
She prepped for this year's NCAA Championships with a solid fall. The Lion co-captain was second in the Pre-Nationals at Indiana State, won the Heptagonal Ivy League Championships again, this time with a clocking that broke a 23-year old record, and finished third in the NCAA Northeast Regionals. The most decorated female track & field athlete in Columbia history, she was first team All-Ivy League, All-Region, and Academic All-Ivy League, in addition to her All-American honors.
"When you consider her second place finishes in both the 5000 at the NCAA Indoor Championships and the 10,000 at the NCAA Outdoor Championships," Wood noted, "I think you have to conclude that Caroline has established herself as the nation's top female collegiate distance runner. "
Bierbaum would be the second Columbia student-athlete in six years to receive a Honda Award. Cristina Teuscher `00CC, Columbia's former All-American swimmer, received a Honda Award in 2000 as the nation's outstanding women's collegiate swimmer.
As a Honda Sports Award recipient, Bierbaum would automatically be nominated for the Honda-Broderick Award, awarded to the nation's outstanding collegiate woman of the year. Teuscher also received that honor in 2001, the only Ivy League student-athlete ever so honored.
