Oregon-bound Connor Burns wraps up high school career with two more titles

Burns will compete at Festival of Miles on Thursday in St. Louis

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Connor Burns is “super stoked” about continuing his running career at the University of Oregon in a few months.

The decorated Southern Boone distance runner has a few other things to take care of first.

This weekend, he checked a few items off the to-do list by winning the Class 3 1600 and 3200 titles at the Missouri Track and Field Championships and helping the Eagles’ 4x800 relay team take second place.

The titles were the second and third of his high school track career – following his record-setting 3200 triumph (8 minutes 48.76 seconds) as a junior – and give him five individual championships including cross country titles in 2021 and 2022.

“The focus is on Thursday at the Festival of Miles,” Burns said. “So we were trying to get these two wins and run hard in the 4x8.”

The Festival of Miles, coming up this Thursday at St. Louis University High School in St. Louis, is where Burns ran his first sub-4 minute mile a year ago, running 3:58.83.

The Southern Boone standout became the first Missouri high schooler to break 4 minutes and just the 15th high schooler to do it.

Earlier this month Burns broke the national high school record in the 5K, running 13:37.30 at Track Fest in Walnut, California, to break the record set by Galen Rupp in 2004.

On Friday, Burns’ 5K record was broken by California high schooler Lex Young, who ran a 13:34.96 at the LA Grand Prix in Los Angeles.

Burns was asked Saturday what stands out about his final high school season and he offered a quick glimpse at what’s in his plans for the future.

“I would say my 5K national record but it got broken last night by someone else,” Burns said. “I’ll get that back in a few weeks. Definitely racing and meeting other guys nationally, you know, future teammates and future competitors in college has been pretty fun.”

Burns added two more individual championships to the trophy case this weekend, but while his celebrated Southern Boone High School career has concluded there’s plenty more ahead for him with big races in the coming weeks before moving to Oregon.

He’s certainly excited about continuing his career as a Duck beginning in August.

“That’s going to be a movie next year,” Burns said. “… It’s going to be incredible.”

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