Aubrey Bush has everything going against her.

Yet, somehow, she’s a Mountain West Conference diving champion, finishing with two top 3 finishes, including first place in the MWC platform dive on Feb. 27.

The last time the Lobos had an MWC diving champion was in 2005, when former Lobo Becca Barras finished first in the 1-meter dive and platform dive.

“It’s super awesome, but it has been a lot of dedication and hard work,” Bush said. “It’s really cool, but I just go to meets to have fun, and, as long as I do that, it doesn’t matter where I place. But I tend to put a lot of pressure on myself, and I have noticed that is when I do bad. When I go in there with no expectations and just have fun, I come out strong.”

Still, no one could have expected Bush to succeed in spite of the innumerable obstacles she’s faced.

Initially, Bush wasn’t always a diver. She was a gymnast for 12 years before joining the UNM Swimming and Diving Team. UNM diving coach Abel Sanchez said Bush has only been diving for three years whereas many of her competitors have devoted much of their lives to mastering the sport.

To make matters worse, Bush competes in, what Sanchez said, are lackluster facilities. UNM doesn’t have a diving platform. The closest platform for the Lobos to practice is six hours away, in Colorado Springs, Colo., at the Air Force Academy.
Still, Bush doesn’t make excuses.

“Well, it’s kind of a disadvantage, but with every meet we go to, we practice the platform,” she said. “Any time (I am) on the platform, it’s great.”

Luckily, she comes in with a background in gymnastics, something, she said, offsets other drawbacks she faces.

“Being a gymnast, it has really helped me with the flipping and spinning,” Bush said. “The only thing that was weird was landing on my head, because, if you do something like that in gymnastics, you die.”

Sanchez said Bush has to work that much harder to overcome adversity.

“Aubrey’s accomplished a lot of amazing things,” he said. “She has only been diving for just under three years, and she is doing really well, and she works very hard. And, fortunate enough, she is taking (her success) very well and is doing some great stuff to win conference. I think this is the toughest competition that our conference has ever seen.”
But not tougher than what Bush has seen.

In order to jump that last hurdle, Bush said she needs to keep her energy level up, when UNM heads to Austin, Texas, on March 11 for the NCAA Zone Diving Competition. If she performs strongly in Texas, she will qualify for NCAA Championships.
“I hope to make it to nationals,” Bush said. “But the zones’ competition is a little bit tougher, and I just need to go in there and do what I know how to do.”