Ashland resident and Southern Boone County High School senior Connor Burns aces at the Team Nationals meet in Portland, Oregon, today, running for an individual national title. Burns will look to add his name to the list of other Missouri All-Time Greats that have had high school cross country national meet success and/or earned All-American Honors.
Burns will look to join that list of Missouri men that includes Chris Zinn, Joe Falcon, Jon Hatley, Joe Kirby, Jason Sandfort, Zach Herriott, Joshua Mathis, Jacob Swearingen, among others.
Burns has already established himself as the best Missouri prep male distance runner of all-time, having run 3:58 for a full mile and 9:45 for a full two-miles. He's also the fastest Show-Me State high school harrier, with 5k times of 14:32 and 14:27, at Agri Park at the Chile Pepper Festival and at LaVern Gibson at the Midwest Team Regional meet in Terre Haute.
On Sunday, November 13, Burns became just the 4th individual Missouri boy qualifier to the team national meet with his 2nd-place finish at the Midwest Regional. He joins Potosi's Jacob Swearingin-2008, Rockhurst's Zach Herriott-2011, and Rock Bridge's Evan Schulte-2013, as the lone Missouri men to qualify individually since the meet began sending top-5 regional finishers to the national meet, along with the top-2 teams, in 2008.
The 2006 Team Nationals meet was held before regional meets were began in 2007, and teams made it to nationals based on rankings. The Potosi boys were selected in 2006, where they placed 8th nationally, behind superstars Joshua Mathis, Joshua Thebeau, and Jacob Swearingen.
Missouri was put into the Heartland Region when regionals began in 2007. The meet was held in South Dakota, with SLUH taking 3rd in the boy's national qualifying race. In 2008, Missouri was moved into the Midwest Region with the states of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, and Illinois.
Burns will look to do
what no other Missourian has ever done, win a cross country national title at
one of the top national meets. Burns amazing regional race and battle with
Michigan's Hunter Jones over the final 1,000-meters at Terre Haute was an
instant classic, an epic duel, right down the 450-meter homestretch,
which saw both men cross the finish in under 14:30 to destroy the course
record of 14:48.
Burns will look to better Susan Bliss and Megan Thompson's runner-up finishes at what was then the Kinney Cross Country Championships. That meet became the Foot Locker and Eastbay Championships before being renamed the Champs Sports XC national championships this year. Francis Howell's Bliss was 2nd in 1987 as a senior. Hazelwood Central's Thompson was a 4x national qualifier. After taking 22nd as a freshman in 1986, she was 3rd in 1987, 6th in 1988, and 2nd as a senior in 1989.
Burns will try to also become the highest male finisher, trying to better Chris Zinn and Matt Tegenkamp's 5th-place Champs Sports XC finishes. Zinn did so as a senior at West Plains in 1983 while Tegenkamp was a senior for Lee's Summit in 1999.
Burns will need a top-8 finish to earn a best Team Nationals finish by a Missouri boy. Zach Herriott of Rockhurst placed 9th in 2011, while Joshua Mathis earned a 10th-place finish in 2006.
