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Burmeister

Leathernecks Qualify for the USA National Championships in Track & Field

| By: WIU Athletic Communications
During the 2022-2023 academic year the sports spotlight has focused on various student-athletes within the track & field program. Logan Lommel and Paulina Wuestefeld broke long standing school records in cross country last fall, freshman Arnie Grunert broke the indoor school record in the pole vault, jumping 5.12 (16' 9.5"), to be one of the top-15 freshmen in the NCAA and Toriano Tate won Summit League Field Event Athlete of the Meet and Newcomer of the Meet during the indoor conference championships. The women's distance medley relay school record that was set in 1982 was broken, Logan Lommel broke the 3000 meter steeplechase record from 1973, and the Leatherneck sprint medley relay squad won the Drake Relays, defeating major Division I opponents including Nebraska.

Soon another student-athlete within the program will take the spotlight; freshman Fire Science major Lucas Burmeister qualified to the USA under-20 National Championships in the 100 meters and 200 meters. The competition is held in "Track Town USA", Eugene Oregon, where Nike, the community of Eugene, and the University of Oregon partnered to build a $270,000,000 new track & field facility recently. Oregon hosted the 2022 World Championships for track & field and they regularly host the NCAA National Championships for collegiate athletes.

"I'm very excited to compete in a meet of this caliber," Burmeister said. "I'll be up against the best high school and college athletes in the country. My main focus this summer has been getting stronger in the weight room, improving my running mechanics, and working on block starts. I'm hoping it can all come together for a great performance. I'd like to run sub-10.50 in the 100 meters and sub-21.00 in the 200 meters; with how training has been progressing, I believe those marks are within reach." 

Burmeister is one of 18 competitors slated to compete in both short sprint events; he's ranked 14th in the 100 meters and 17th in the 200 meters. His personal bests of 10.53 in the 100 and 21.34 in the 200 are just hundredths of a second away from the top u-20 qualifiers.

Burmeister's 200 meter time earlier this year tied him for sixth all-time in Western Illinois history. His 21.34 ties LeRoy Jackson from the 1961 season and Marv Edwards from the 1978 season who ran the same time. Desmond Bynum holds the school record at 20.91 from 2003; a record that will be in jeopardy when Burmeister toes the line in Eugene this weekend.

"I recruited Lucas very hard last year but he decided to attend a junior college and not do any sports instead. Mid-fall semester he texted me and said that he missed the sport of track & field and wanted to join the team in January. My wife (assistant coach Stephanie Brokaw) joked that we needed to start a documentary called Couch to Champion featuring Lucas. We don't have the resources or time to pull that off but Lucas might just fulfill that storyline anyway," said third-year head track and field coach, Trey Brokaw. "Lucas has been a tremendous addition to the team. He was a big reason why our men's track & field team had their best conference finish in the past decade. He also played a big part in the sprint medley win at Drake. He just finished his first semester at WIU but in many ways he's already a team leader.

"We had a very young, talented recruiting class this past year. Aliyah Adams (triple jump and long jump), Toriano Tate (long jump), and Nakeita Kessling (triple jump) just missed out on qualifying for the u-20 Championships. Freshman pole vaulter sensation, Arnie Grunert, is a few months too old to qualify otherwise he would be traveling with Burmeister this weekend as well. The future is bright for the Western Illinois track and field program."

The USA under-20 National Championships coincide with the senior championships where the professional athletes compete. The event starts Thursday July 6th and end of Sunday July 9th. Burmeister's competition weekend will begin at 2:04pm on Saturday July 8th with the 100 meter prelim.

If Burmeister is one of the top-9 qualifiers, the final for the 100 meter dash is at 4:24pm. On Sunday, the u-20 200 meter prelim starts at 2:21pm and the final is contested at 4:54pm. The top-2 finishers in each event will represent the United States at the under-20 World Championships hosted in Santiago, Chile this coming October. Those interested in watching can see events live on www.usatf.tv.
 
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