NEW ORLEANS, La.—For the second time this year, Lewis & Clark College women's track & field senior Riley Buese was named the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) West Region Track Athlete of the Year, the USTFCCCA announced on Thursday afternoon. 
 
Buese earned the award for both Indoor and Outdoor Track this school year, as part of a banner year for the Colorado native. She is the first student-athlete in program history to earn the award multiple times and one of two student-athletes in school history to have won the award. Frankie Reid ('24) was named the USTFCCCA West Region Outdoor Men's Track Athlete of the Year in the Spring of 2021. 
 
Buese took home the honors after single-handedly outscoring the rest of the West women's teams at last week's 2025 NCAA DIII Outdoor Track & Field Nationals Championship Meet. She scored 14 points to help Lewis & Clark finish in a tie for 17^th overall. 
 
The senior competed in two events at Nationals. On Thursday, she earned her highest-ever finish in a National Championship Race, when she placed second overall in the 10K. Buese crossed the line in 34:20.14 – less than four seconds off her program and Northwest Conference record time. She came back on Saturday to post her school-record eight career All-American award. The senior came into the 5K seeded 10^th overall, but ran a PR time of 16:30.64 to finish in third. 
 
Buese wrapped up the season as the top-ranked student-athlete in the 5K and 10K. She ran a 34:16.33 in the 10K at the Stanford Invitational on April 4 - which ranks as the fastest time in West Region history. No one else in the West Region finished within a minute of her time in the 10K. Buese added a program-record time in the 5K at Nationals (16:30.64), which was nearly 45 seconds faster than Colorado College's Isabel Olson who placed 20^th in the event.  Finally, the Pioneers senior registered the fourth-fastest time in the region in the 1,500M. She posted a mark of 4:32.52 at the George Fox Final Qualifier on May 15 to set the school record in the event.