We knew Connor Burns had the talent to do this but being a duck he hasn't been at the same level he was in high school. Dusting Bob Liking over the last couple laps and covering each of the moves shows promise for a potential breakout outdoor season this year.
This is a pretty STUNNING result. And a big result for Jerry.
A few months ago, I was talking to an NCAA coach about Schumacher's lack of amazing results at Oregon and I said something like, "But he's a great coach. He'll get it going eventually, right?" And this coach said, "You'd assume so but as a college coach you need some momentum. HSers don't know who Chris Solinsky even is."
This gives him some momentum.
But as for it being stunning, consider this: Burns didn't even run NCAA xc. He ran 14:00 at BU in December. He failed to break 4:00 in the mile on 2 different miles this winter. Remember, he was a sub-4 guy in HS.
That is so awesome! I knew Birnbaum was getting into shape with his 3:52.8, so this is nice for Burns. It is hard when one half of a duo is improving and the other isn't.
This success will help the whole team.
Here were Burns' bests (in college) before tonight: MILE - 4:01.07 3000 - 7:48.47 5000 - 14:00.43 8K (XC) - 23:50.3 10K (XC) - 30:13.5
We are like 8 posts in and nobody bothered to mention the time? He ran a 13:39.
Also, I posted this on the other thread (maybe they can be merged):
That is so awesome! I knew Birnbaum was getting into shape with his 3:52.8, so this is nice for Burns. It is hard when one half of a duo is improving and the other isn't. This success will help the whole team. Here were Burns' bests (in college) before tonight: MILE - 4:01.07 3000 - 7:48.47 5000 - 14:00.43 8K (XC) - 23:50.3 10K (XC) - 30:13.5
Birnbaum is rumored to be hurt. Would have loved to see him run the mile at NCAAs.
I heard that too... bummer.
I also heard that they are really okay just using indoors to build fitness for outdoors. There doesn't seem to be much "urgency" around indoors from what I hear. That is no fun for us as fans, but that is the way Jerry was with his pros as well (not much racing).
This post was edited 2 minutes after it was posted.
We are like 8 posts in and nobody bothered to mention the time? He ran a 13:39.
Also, I posted this on the other thread (maybe they can be merged):
I almost mentioned it in my post, but 13:39 isn't anything crazy on the national level, and it was a championship race so time isn't really the goal. But that 13:39 is only 2s off his HS pb iirc (he was the one to break Rupp's 5k record with a 13:37 before Lex Young ran 13:35 a bit after), so it looks like he's in the best shape of his life. I think he was also the first junior since Ryun to break 4 in HS (Birnbaum did it a few weeks later), so definitely a huge talent.
He absolutely dusted Liking over the last lap too. If Jerry can just keep Burns and Birnbaum healthy (praying Birnbaum isn't injured), they'll definitely be two of the best guys in the country within the next few years. I feel like there is an absurd amount of talent in the US right now
After he ran 7:48, it was clear he had finally improved for the first time since high school, and quite a bit. Prior to that race, he'd been injured much of his time at Oregon and was 26 seconds slower at 5000m than in high school. This is a guy who broke 4 as a junior. Birnbaum was looking even better with his 3:52 this year, but now he's injured again. Jerry basically did nothing his first year, got his star recruits injured his second year, did very little in xc this year, and now is finally getting his big guns, some of the best ever prospects, to improve. Not exactly efficient but we'll like the results for those who can stay healthy. By the way, that was about a 29 second last 200m, so we should expect big improvement in times for Burns (this to me indicates low 13:20s now, at the least) but he wasn't exactly flying at major championships pace there.