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SEATTLE – She doesn't run from fear. She doesn't run because of fear.
 
But Kishia Mitchell has learned to run toward fear … chase it down …
                                                   
… and leave it in her dust on the track.
 
Same place she leaves most of her opponents.
                                                                          
"At conference indoors, I was really surprised by myself," the stellar Seattle Pacific senior sprinter said. "I hurt my toe last summer. After getting surgery, coming back and being stronger than I've ever been in college, then running the 400 and 200 and 4-by-4 relay and getting through and feeling really confident in myself – it was nice.
 
"That was a new feeling," Mitchell added. "I've always wanted to go for being my best. But I was just scared.
 
"And I don't know what I was afraid of."
 
A merely speedy Mitchell was tough enough for other racers to deal with, whether they were from the Great Northwest Athletic Conference, or elsewhere.
 A confident speedy Mitchell has been even tougher. At the GNAC indoor meet in February, she won the 400 and led off SPU's victorious 4x400 relay. At GNAC outdoors 10 days ago, she duplicated that feat, giving her 12 career conference titles between the winter and spring seasons combined.
 
Now, there's one more meet before Mitchell pulls off the Falcon maroon for the last time. That will be this week in Allendale, Mich., as she and five of her teammates head to the NCAA Division II Championships.
 
Mitchell's event will be that 4x400 relay. She'll be joined for Friday's preliminary heats at Grand Valley Track & Field Stadium by juniors Tasia Baldwin and Jasmine Johnson, along with fellow senior and best friend BryAnne Wochnick.
 
"I didn't think we would make it," Mitchell said, as the Falcons were squarely on the bubble until last Tuesday afternoon when they found out they were the 15^th and final foursome into the meet. "I was in the library and I stood up and started running all over the place and shouting, 'Hey everybody, I'm going to nationals.'
 
"I'm still tired from the season. But I'm excited to be going."
 
DEFINITELY HAS A FUN SIDE
If you only know Kishia Mitchell from a distance, the thought of her running around a library shouting something – even if the something is, "I'm going to nationals" – is hard to imagine. While some people instantly convey that they're up for a good conversation, a first meeting or two with Mitchell won't necessarily be very chatty.
 
But don't assume that the native of Puyallup, about an hour and a half southeast of Seattle, is always a quiet one.
 
In fact, the exact opposite is probably a more accurate description.
 
"I don't think the team as a whole would be the same without her," NCAA 800-meter title contender and fellow senior McKayla Fricker said. "Just how fun and engaging she is with everyone, she gets the team on more of personal level and gets us together."
 
Said Mitchell, "I love people. I love talking to people, helping people, listening to people. I think that has been one of the flaws that I have: I get distracted by talking to people and wanting to socialize."
 
Besides, the truly quiet types usually don't go around pulling pranks on people. If they do, nobody suspects them.
  
"I did wrap up Chris' chair. And I'm the one they did suspect," Mitchell said with a grin. "I love jokes. Laughing is my favorite."
 
Mitchell acknowledges that she might not be the easiest one to figure out right away. One person who did make an early and quick connection with her was teammate Wochnick, also a sprinter.
 
"We spend so much time together on the track and off the track," Wochnick said. "Both she and I support each other, and get along really easily."
 
Through the past four years, Mitchell has been very appreciative of that bond.
 
"When I say I have a personality that not that many people understand, she understands it," Mitchell said. "She's a little quieter, but we're a lot alike."
                         
FLYING OFF IN FAST FASHION
Understand this about Mitchell: She's making the most of her final collegiate season.
 
In addition to the conference titles, she posted career-best times in the 200 and 400, both indoors and outdoors. The indoor 4x400 relay came within five-hundredths of a second of the final berth to nationals. The outdoor team got into the field by seven-hundredths of a second, but very realistically is in position to grab a second straight All-American honor.
                                        
"At the GNAC meet, I thought, 'This is my last track meet for college,'" Mitchell said of what ultimately became a three-day wait to find out that it wasn't her last meet after all. "Nationals (last year) was really memorable."
 
That she has made her senior year memorable, even after the toe surgery, is no surprise to head coach Karl Lerum.
 
"I know she was worried about coming back from her surgery. But she has put in the work, she rehabbed, and she has been as thoughtful about her recovery as she is about her training," Lerum said. "In the end, Kishia wants to run fast. She loves the pursuit of excellence on the track, and has deep desire to become faster."
 
As she prepared to graduate from Rogers High School of Puyallup in 2010, Seattle Pacific got a very serious look from Mitchell.
 
"I was nervous to go to a bigger school because I was told it was a business, and if I got hurt, I would probably be out," said Mitchell, who won the Washington Class 4A (large school) state titles in the 100, 400, and 4x200 relay as a senior. "SPU has one of the better track programs, so I said, 'I can still go to SPU and get fast.'"
 By her own admission, the journey has been a roller coaster, whether athletically, academically, or even socially.
 
"Track hasn't always gone the way I've wanted it to go. And academically, it has been a lot harder than I thought, and making friends was kind of hard," Mitchell said. "But I've enjoyed it. It has been a good school."
 
Indeed, Mitchell now has friends all over campus. A degree in applied human biology is just a few weeks away, and she has an eye toward a career in the women's health field.
 
There's also the NCAA trip this week. That she's running as well as she is makes it a fitting finish for Mitchell, who sometimes wasn't sure if she wanted to keep going.
 
"I would say, 'Kishia, this is what you want to do, this is what you've worked for,'" Wochnick said of those moments when she would give her buddy a boost. "And she would say, 'Yeah, you're right, you're right.'"
 
Wochnick's encouragement would get Mitchell going again.
 
"I'm motivated to reach my full potential. I don't know if I've even reached that," Mitchell said. "I don't want to look back and say I never tried, or wish I could have tried harder.
 
"I'm at a point in my life where I want to go for something. If I don't go for it, I don't know what the answer will be," she added. "So I might as well just go for it."
 
For Kishia Mitchell, there's nothing to fear in going for it. She already has chased fear down …
 
… and left it in her dust on the track.