Bush finishes high school on state meet podium

By ROB HAMILTON

While Mount Gilead’s Mikaela Bush had reached the podium at the state cross coun­try meet in each of her four years of com­pe­ti­tion, she had not had the same good for­tune in her track career enter­ing Saturday.

Bush had com­peted in four indi­vid­ual events at state over her first three years of high school, but didn’t place. Then, on Fri­day, she com­peted on a pair of relay teams that weren’t able to fin­ish in the top eight.

How­ever, she had two events left on Sat­ur­day and was able to reach the podium in both. She took eighth in the Divi­sion III 1600 in 5:09.86 and fol­lowed that up with a seventh-place fin­ish in the 800 in 2:19.09.

In the 1600, she was in fourth place for a good por­tion of the race, but found her­self run­ning alone behind a trio of fron­trun­ners and a sec­ond group of four. That group passed her on the final lap, but she was able to hold on to a spot in the top eight.

“I’m happy I made the podium finally,” she said. “I wish I could have been faster, but I’m sat­is­fied. I got down to what I ran at districts.”

Bush noted that there was some tough com­pe­ti­tion in the race, as her time would have placed her much higher on the podium last year.

“I was just try­ing to kick with what I had left,” she said. “I’m just glad to hold onto eighth. Last year, if I ran what I did today, I’d have got­ten third, so it depends from year to year.”

In the 800, things were a bit dif­fer­ent, as a late surge by the Indian senior allowed her to move from eighth place to sev­enth down the final stretch.

“I was just try­ing my best in the mile and then come back with what’s left for the 800,” she said.

While both Bush and coach Den­nis West, who is the head coach for cross coun­try and an assis­tant on the track team, were pleased with how her high school career ended, those feel­ings were mixed with sadness.

“I’m really happy, but it’s bit­ter­sweet,” said Bush. “It’s a good end­ing, but I’m sad it’s over. I didn’t run my best times, but I’m happy mak­ing the podium — it’s a good ending.”

West had the same sen­ti­ments, as he was happy to see his ath­lete fin­ish as a dual-placer in the state meet, but will miss her con­tri­bu­tions in the future.

“This is awe­some,” he said. “It’s the best way to cap it off for her, but it’s bit­ter­sweet. She has done phe­nom­e­nal. I’ve never had any­one like her.”

It was a busy week­end for Bush at the state track meet. On Fri­day, she ran with team­mates Rachel Bush, Bryanna Bolha and Ray­chel Gress in both the finals of the 3200-meter relay and the pre­lims of the 1600-meter relay.

The quar­tet placed 10th in the 3200 relay in 9:50.83. Then, in the 1600 relay, their time of 4:16.85 put them 15th; how­ever, only the top nine teams reached the finals.

Being able to com­pete in four events in her final state meet was an excit­ing way for Bush to end her time with the Indians.

“I’m glad they were on sep­a­rate days, so that helped me recover,” she said on Sat­ur­day. “Espe­cially since yesterday’s weather (cool, windy and rainy) wasn’t so nice.”

Posted by Rob Hamilton on Jun 6 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.