Missouri Star Connor Burns Opens Senior Year
With Something To Prove
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A DyeStat Story By Dave Devine
Photos by Lily Dozier
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Don’t read too much into this.
It’s not a big deal. Just a 11-year-old kid, running laps around a track.
A fifth grader, whose dad happens to be a college distance coach, doggedly trailing one of his dad’s top runners, senior Will Crocker. Experience and earnestness. Short legs churning after long legs.
Both trying to slip under five-minutes and twenty-seconds for four laps.
For Crocker, a 4:01 miler, it’s barely a challenge. When his coach sent a text asking if he’d mind pacing the kid to a sub-5:20, he figured: No problem, let’s go run some 80’s. His legs are set to automatic.
For Connor Burns, the fifth grader, it’s another matter.
He’s shooting for a personal best
The oldest of four boys, Connor is into all kinds of athletic endeavors — baseball and soccer and basketball; the occasional unsanctioned boxing match with his brothers — but he’s starting to love this sport that his parents, Marc and Alana Burns, excelled at through high school and college. The one they both starred in at Loyola University Chicago.
The one that he’s watched his dad coach here at the University of Missouri.
At this point, there aren’t many competitive opportunities for fifth graders, but Connor doesn’t take it too seriously anyway. No heavy training or early specialization. No pressure from his parents. They want him to come to this running thing on his own. He just happens to be naturally gifted, so every now and then they all head to the track to see if he can knock out a new personal best.
Today, he’s tucked in behind Crocker, trying to ride the slipstream behind the senior’s metronomic pace. Marc and Alana are trackside, cheering and calling out splits.
Let’s go run some 80s.
Whenever Crocker senses the youngster starting to lag, he glances back and urges him on. But a small gap starts to widen. An 80-second lap becomes an 81. The goal starts to slip away.
Battling home, Connor crosses in 5:21. Still a great time for a 11-year-old.
And they can always give it another shot in a week or two, right?
That’s what Crocker is thinking, and probably what Connor’s parents are thinking, too. Send another text, meet again at the empty track, take another swing at the PR.
But it’s not what Connor is thinking.
Years later, he’ll remember this near-miss and admit: “I was…
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