By John RittenhouseA Hills-Beaver Creek junior drew All-State accolades during the Minnesota State Class A Cross Country Championships in Northfield Saturday.Tyler Bush, a member of the H-BC-Ellsworth-Edgerton program, raced his way to a 21st-place finish in the 165-runner boys’ varsity race.Bush ran a career-best time of 16:32.7 to crack the Top 25 individual competition. All of the top 25 runners at the meet earn All-State status."Tyler did everything we wanted him to do," said Patriot coach Tom Goehle. "We wanted to run a 5:20 pace (each 1,600 meters), which would have given him an exact time of 16:33. We figured a 16:33 would place him in the Top 10 based on last year’s results. It just so happened that the field of runners was a lot better as a whole this year."Bush shaved 43 seconds off his 17:15 performance at the state meet in 2002, when he placed 15th individually.Unfortunately for Bush, the best performance of his life was not good enough to place him higher than 21st Saturday.Goehle, however, was not disappointed in his performance.The H-BC-E-E coach noted that Bush placed sixth among non-seniors in the state field that featured a state meet record winning time of 15:41.5 turned in by East Grand Forks senior Matt Damico."Tyler went out and ran his best race ever. He ran at a perfect pace. You just can’t control how the other runners perform at a state meet," Goehle said.If Bush continues to improve as a senior in 2004, he will be a force to be reckoned with at the state meet next season."With a couple of years of experience up there (in Northfield), he has an idea of what he has to do to finish as one of the top two or three runners at the state meet, which is something he would like to do."
