By:Tony Bellissimo
She captured the 1,000 by a wide margin, finishing in 3:03.2, then beat out South Side-s Molly Dreska in the 1,500 with a winning time of 5:04.2.
Theresa-s a tremendous competitor who goes all out to win every race, said North coach Mike Frazer. She led in the 1,000 from beginning to end, but the 1,500 was more of a strategic race. She sat off the pace most of the way and rocketed to the front with two laps to go and never looked back. On top of her talent, she-s learning to become a smart runner.
Rush, who at one point was in eighth place in a field of 10 in the 1,500, didn-t panic. She started to kick into gear with three laps remaining. She picked off her competitors one by one and eventually held off Dreska by 1.4 seconds. Lisa Mulvey, a senior from Carle Place who led most of the way, came in third, 2.6 seconds back.
Winning the 1,000 gave me confidence, and I felt really strong at the end of the 1,500, said Rush, who will run both the 1,000 and 1,500 at the state meet March 6 at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse.
A member of the Lady Spartans- varsity cross-country, winter and spring track teams since eighth grade, Rush had a breakout year as a freshman, when she placed ninth in the county in cross-country and won the 1,500 county title indoors and the Nassau Class C championships in the 800, 1,500 and 3,000 outdoors.
She turned some heads for sure, Frazer said. There was no relay for her to run last spring, so she decided to do three individual events and she won them all. She-s a powerful runner, both mentally and physically.
In Rush-s triple-win day last year, she took the 800 in 2:21.4, the 1,500 in 4:54.4 and the 3,000 in 11:00.3. She went on to finish 18th in the state in the 1,500, with a time of 4:58.17, at Union-Endicott High School.
Winning all three events was great, and it made me feel like I-m as good as I want to be, she said.
All told, Rush will be making her fifth appearance at a state meet. Just going to states is a big deal in itself, Frazer said. Theresa has been there before, and there-s no substitute for experience. She wants to do better each time, and I-m confident she will.
