Bush Takes Home BIG EAST Swimmer of the Week
11/20/2013 12:00:00 AM | Women's Swimming and Diving
Nov. 20, 2013
NEW YORK, N.Y. - Following a fast start to her collegiate career, Seton Hall freshman Melody Bush (Guelph, Ontario) was named the first BIG EAST Female Swimmer of the Week of the 2013-14 season the conference announced on Monday morning.
Bush shot out of the gate in her first three meets as a Pirate; winning seven of eight individual events in which she competed. In the opener against Montclair State, she recorded the top time in both the 200-yard freestyle and 100-yard butterfly before picking up two more wins in what was another team victory over Rider.
The highlight of her young career came during a trip to Baltimore, Md. for a quad meet that included Drexel, Lafayette and hosts Loyola. Bush emerged as the standout of the meet after finishing as the only swimmer to record three first-place times. With victories in the 200-free, 500-free and 200-back, she helped SHU to a dominant team win over Lafayette and was also named SHUPirates.com Athlete of the Week on October 29th for her efforts.
During the season opening stretch, the only race in which she did not reach the wall first was the 100-free against Montclair State. In that event, she was edged by teammate and school record holder Kerrie Kolackovsky (Franklin Square, N.Y.).
Bush has not slowed down since her dominant showing at Loyola, first helping Seton Hall score an impressive road victory in a dual meet at BIG EAST rival Providence with three top-three performances.
Her most significant contributions came at a quad meet that featured conference foes Georgetown and Villanova as well as hosts Rutgers as she posted the top time among the three BIG EAST teams in both the 100-back and 200-back. Not only were her times the fastest at the meet, but her marks of 58.22 and 2:05.94 stand as the leading marks in the entire conference to this point in the season.
Bush and the rest of the Pirates will look to head into the winter break with some momentum as they head to Fairfax, Va. for the three-day Patriot Invitational, the team's final competition of the fall.
