Junior distance runner Gillian Bushée is a team player. Though she is one of the top cross country runners on the women’s team, when asked about her favorite race of all time, she pointed to a team achievement from last year, when Virginia automatically qualified for NCAA Championships for the first time in years.
“We had such a great group of girls,” Bushée said. “So that moment when we all realized we got second, we were all super happy. And it felt like nobody was racing individually, everyone was racing for the team.”
The chemistry Bushée describes on the women’s team has paid off — the entire women’s track team also won the ACC Outdoor Championship.
Still, even though her community is a large support behind her, Bushée’s personal records, which have continued to progress, deserves its own credit. Track and cross country, after all, is made up of individual events and does require strong individual performances.
“One of my big goals is to be All-ACC, All-Region,” Bushée said, prior to cross country’s championship season.
Now, consider those boxes checked. Bushée accomplished both goals, and competed with her team at the NCAA Championships, placing 70th in the women’s 6-kilometer race in a deep field of 262 competitors.
Bushée’s team-first mentality applies off the track as well — she brings this sense of collective good to her volunteering work.
Each Sunday, she heads back to the track to volunteer for Run Charlottesville — fittingly, that occurs on the same track Bushée does workouts on. Run Charlottesville is a local branch of non-profit organization that allows student athletes — many from both the women’s and the men’s cross country team — to facilitate weekly races, relays and games to keep young kids active.
Bushée started volunteering with the organization in her first year at the suggestion of an older teammate, and she is now their chief communication officer. In her role, she has had parents come up to her to say how much their kids have loved the program and have particularly loved having her as their coach.
“A little girl in my [Run Charlottesville] group, her dad came up to me and was like, ‘She is in awe of you. Like, she just loves hanging out with you,’” Bushée said.
In addition to Run Charlottesville, Bushée is a board member for Smiles from Sarah, a non-profit that works to better the lives of young kids undergoing frequent medical treatments as well as their parents and caregivers, while also sending funds directly to the hospitals they work with.
For Bushée, Smiles from Sarah is deeply connected to her and her family. Sarah Fyock, for whom the organization is named, was Bushée’s cousin. Sarah tragically passed away at age 17 due to a rare form of congenital muscular dystrophy, and had been in and out of hospitals for much of her life.
“That is definitely a cause that is really close to my heart,” Bushée said. “I was super close to my cousin, and I saw the impact that it had on her.”
Bushée has helped drive kids to the hospital and has made many therapeutic playkits. However, working on social media has given her an opportunity to witness what kind of a difference Smiles from Sarah has made for kids.
“I see the social media [messages] from parents being like, ‘Thank you so much, [you all] just brighten my kid’s day,’” Bushée said. “So those kinds of messages really make it worth it.”
Despite Bushée’s already large impact on Smiles from Sarah, she and her family still want to see more growth in the organization. Smiles from Sarah currently operates in seven hospitals across Virginia, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Delaware, Texas and Washington DC.
“We hope to expand [Smiles from Sarah] to hospitals across the country,” Bushée said.
Outside of Bushée’s commitment to volunteering, she’s understandably busy with track and cross country, but there, too, she’s a leader.
Bushée knows what it means to benefit from a really strong and ambitious community like the Virginia women’s cross country team. Even when visiting Virginia for the first time, Bushée sensed that it was going to be the right place with the right team culture. The women’s cross country team is fairly small with fewer than 15 runners, which has cultivated a close and strong group.
“I just had a feeling that this is a great place,” Bushée said. “The team was so awesome … The coach is young and new and excited about where we could go as a group, and our head coach, Coach Vin Lananna, has such a huge background in the running world.”
Becoming an upperclassman this year has meant becoming more of a leader on the team, but she said it has not been a difficult transition. She gives a lot of credit to the runners who have come before her like Class of 2025 alumni Margot Appleton, Sophie Atkinson and Camryn Menninger.
“They showed us what it meant to be a U.Va. cross country and track runner,” Bushée said. “We want to continue to be a great team on the course and off the course, too.”
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