Southern Boone County High School's Connor Burns rewrote the record books and had one of the best junior seasons ever by a U.S. high school distance runner. In the winter, Burns ran a sub 4:10 indoor mile. Then on February 12, Burns ran a 4:02.96 mile in the men's mile against collegians and unattached athletes at the Iowa State Classic in Ames, Iowa. The time was faster than both Jason Pyrah's (Willard) school season 4:03.54 1600-meter state record, and Austin Hindman's (Lafayette) post-school season mile state record mark of 4:04.53. Burns finished his indoor season with a 7th-place New Balance Indoor Nationals finish in New York City in 4:05.83.
Burns opened his outdoor season with a 9:08.15 3200-meters at the Festus McCullough-Douglas Invitational on March 26. That time secured him a spot in the fastest section of the 3200 at the prestigious Arcadia Invitational in California. On April 9th, Burns ran at Arcadia, finishing 11th in 8:52.79 to move past Matt Tegenkamp (Lee's Summit) and Joe Falcon (Belton) to 2nd, behind only Hindman, on the All-Time 3200/2-mile Missouri performance list.
Southern Boone County's Connor Burns ran to the state meet record in the 3200.
Burns returned to Missouri and went back to training and winning races. At the Jefferson City Licklider Relays, on the same track he'd race for his first state track titles six weeks later, Burns captured the Jim Marshall 1600-meter title in 4:16.74 on April 15. A few days later he got the chance that many distance runners dream of, competing in the high jump. Burns cleared the opening height of 1.40m/4-7'' before going out with three misses at 1.45m/4-9''.
At State, Burns and El Dorado Springs senior Daelen Ackley battled for Class 3 titles. The pair have had some great duels the past two years, going 1-2 in Class 3 state cross country and track races over and over. With warm temperatures, the hot sun beating down, and with no cloud cover in sight, it was reasonable to expect Burns and Ackley take a conservative pace in the 3200 on late Friday afternoon. Ackley had already run the 4x800 and both were scheduled for the 1600 on Saturday with Ackley also slated to run the 800.
However, that's not what either of them had in mind. Burns burst off the line and finished the first of eight laps in 62.83-seconds. Ackley and the field followed. The pair clicked off splits of 62/63, 65/66, 65/68 and 67/69 to go thru 1600-meters in 4:21 and 4:27. Burns didn't let up and powered down the homestretch for one final time, clocking a final 400-meter split of 62.98-seconds. His final time? 8:48.76, surpassing Jason Pyrah's Class 3/3A State Meet record of 9:07.48 and Austin Hindman's Overall State Meet record of 8:54.23. The time also put Burns 13th on the season national performance list. Ackley also made history, joining the exclusive sub-9-minute club, finishing in 8:59.47.
After graduating from Willard High School outside of Springfield, Pyrah went on to success at BYU and in the post-collegiate/professional ranks. Pyrah placed 5th at the 1988 World Under-20 Championships in the 1500-meters before eventually becoming a 3:35 1500-meter runner and 2-time Olympian who placed 10th in the event at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. Pyrah has been one of the top MSHSAA state cross country and track and field officials for years and presented Burns with his gold medal during the 3200-meter awards ceremony.
Burns received his 3200-meter state meet gold medal from and was congratulated by Willard High School great and 2-time Olympian Jason Pyrah.