Nicole Bush (2023) - Hall of Fame - Michigan State University Athletics

Nicole Bush

Induction:
2023
Class:
2009

Nicole Bush
Women's Cross Country/Track & Field (2004-09)
Wyoming, Mich.
MSU Athletics Hall of Fame Class of 2023

HALL OF FAME FEATURE: CLASS OF 2023

When Nicole Bush received the call from Michigan State Vice President and Director of Athletics Alan Haller that she was part of the 2023 Hall of Fame class, a distant memory immediately came to mind.

"I remember walking through the Hall of Fame when I was a freshman and looking at how small it was in terms of the number of female runners that were in there," said Bush. "I just immediately went back to that memory and was like, 'Wow, I get to be in there.' So much time has passed since I first thought that, and that memory just came back really fast."

Bush is the second women's cross country athlete to be inducted into the MSU Athletics Hall of Fame and eighth women's track & field athlete.

A year after that walk through the Hall of Fame, as a sophomore, Bush began to make a name for herself in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, an event that had only been contested at the NCAA Championships on the women's side since 2001 and that she had never run prior to college. She finished third at the 2006 Big Ten Championships and sixth at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in the event, earning First-Team All-America honors.

Nicole Bush Hall of Fame Graphic

Bush carried this momentum into the following cross country and track & field seasons. During the 2006 cross country campaign, she was named to the NCAA Great Lakes All-Region team and competed at the NCAA Cross Country Championships. She continued to flourish on the track, recording All-Big Ten honors in both the indoor and outdoor seasons and earning another First-Team All-America nod in the steeplechase at the 2007 NCAA Outdoor Championships by virtue of a sixth-place finish.

The 2007 cross country season saw Bush earn her first All-America distinction in cross country, where she finished fifth at the NCAA Championships for the highest-ever finish by a Spartan at the time. She also picked up a pair of All-America honors during the indoor track & field season, finishing fourth in the 5,000-meter run and sixth in the 3,000-meter run at the 2008 NCAA Indoor Championships. She opted out of the 2008 outdoor collegiate season to focus on training for the 2008 Olympic Trials in the steeplechase, the first year the event was contested for women on the Olympic level. She finished fourth overall, just one place shy of qualifying for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China.

Bush was named the 2008-09 Michigan State George Alderton Female Athlete of the Year after putting together a spectacular final year in the Green & White. She won the 2008 Big Ten cross country individual title and Great Lakes Regional title before earning her second-straight All-American honor with a seventh-place finish at the NCAA Cross Country Championships. She won her second conference title of the year with a dominant performance in the steeplechase at the 2009 Big Ten Outdoor Championships and was the runner-up in the event at the NCAA Championships.

Since Bush's graduation from Michigan State in 2009, the Spartan women's cross country and track & field programs have continued to produce multiple NCAA All-Americans and conference champions in addition to team and individual national titles.

"I knew when I came in, I wanted to help make the program eventually what it has become," said Bush. "There was definitely something in my 17-year-old brain that made me be like, 'I really want to be a part of making this program really special.' About five years after I graduated, they won a national championship in cross country. I would like to think I played a part in that because that's what I wanted; I wanted that sort of stuff to happen."

Bush was roommates with current Michigan State Director of Track & Field/Cross Country Lisa Breznau when they both ran for MSU. She says she and Breznau talked about making an impact from the very beginning.

"Lisa and I had those conversations together that we wanted to have impacts on the program. It's really fun to look back and see that we both very much have," said Bush. "It makes me proud to be like, 'We really had the foresight to think of those things and have those conversations and look where it's gotten us.' It's really cool."

While there is no doubt Bush left an impact on the distance program at Michigan State, she also has made it clear that the program made a lasting impact on her. She pursued a career as a professional runner after graduating from MSU, winning a national title in the steeplechase in 2013 that gave her the opportunity to represent the United States at the 2013 IAAF World Championships in Moscow, Russia. Now retired, Bush lives in Portland, Oregon, where she works for Nike in a fellowship program for retired athletes as one of two track & field representatives.

"Everything that I did at Michigan State that set me up to go pro and do all of that stuff is still paying off," said Bush. "Running changed the trajectory of my life. Running has brought the best people into my life. All of the really great things that have happened in my life are because of running and the people who have helped me throughout my career. And that's my high school coach, that's my collegiate coach, that's my teammates and my friends. My family."

Bush will now have a permanent spot in the hallway she walked through as a freshman at Michigan State.

"Those women before me made it possible for there to be a place for me to compete and to chase that dream and to meet some of the most influential people in my life," said Bush. "Those people made it possible for me to do any of these things."