Burke, Hall-Thompson blazing trail to London

Of the Cougars competing at their respective countries track and field championships this weekend, sophomore Mario Burke and junior Eli Hall-Thompson have punched their tickets to the IAAF World Championships in London this August.

Mario Burke became the Barbados national champion in the 100m by running 10.12s in the final on Saturday. He followed up that performance with a time of 20.60s in the 200m Sunday evening. Burke’s time placed him in third place.

For Burke, his qualifying for Worlds is the culmination of goals he set at the start of the season. After medaling for Barbados in consecutive summers at the U-20 level, the 2015 CARIFTA Games and 2016 IAAF U20 World Championships, it was Burke’s goal to represent his country at Worlds.

Burke had already helped Barbados qualify for Worlds in the 4x100m earlier this year at the IAAF World Relays. There Barbados finished second behind Team USA.

With the experience of competing at both the Indoor and Outdoor NCAA Championships, Burke has prepared himself to represent his country at the senior level. Plus, he will get to do it competing in all three major sprinting events.

REDEMPTION QUEST

For NJCAA champion Eli Hall-Thompson, his qualifying for Worlds in the 200m is just the latest accomplishment of what has been a historic first year for the Cougars. But it has also arguably saved his season.

Hall-Thompson earned his ticket by running 20.21s at the USATF Outdoor Championships. His time beat out Oregon’s Kyree King for third place, behind Nike’s Ameer Webb and Christian Coleman.

But just two months ago Hall-Thompson had gone from experiencing the highs of helping the Cougars win a second straight AAC Outdoor Championship on their home track, to missing the NCAA Championships after injuring himself at the regional meet.

At the time Hall-Thompson had nationally ranked times in the 100m, 10.00s (#8), and 200m, 19.96s (#1), by the time he competed in the regional meet. His times had come in event wins at the Penn Relays and the AAC Outdoor Championships.

Hall-Thompson’s outdoor season had been a redemption mission from his indoor season. After setting the Indoor 200m school record, 20.75s, in his very first meet with the Cougars, Hall-Thompson was primed for a strong showing at the NCAA Championships. But a month before the meet he suffered a hamstring injury at the Tyson Invitational.

The loss kept him from competing in both the 200m and the 60m. So despite setting records and helping the Cougars win numerous titles, Hall-Thompson has yet to run a race at the NCAA’s. But with his qualifying for Worlds all that is forgotten. Now he gets to run with red, white and blue on his chest with a legitimate shot to medal in London.

FALLING JUST SHORT

While Hall-Thompson was setting records during the Outdoor season, junior Cameron Burrell was struggling due to a foot injury. This kept him from performing to his best for most of the season up to the conference championships. But at the regional meet Burrell shined.

In his first 100m race he ran a wind aided 9.90s and followed that up with a 9.95s time to qualify for NCAA’s. In the semifinals in Oregon, Burrell ran a personal best and wind legal 9.93s to earn his lane in the final. That time is the best in program history, taking the record from his father, Head Coach Leroy Burrell.

Burrell may have fallen short in the final, running 10.12s to Christian Coleman’s 10.02s, but he did run the anchor leg for the team that won the 4x100m national title. The first major step toward assistant coach Carl Lewis' goal of showing the world that Houston is Sprint City. In his efforts Burrell showed that he is still one of the best in the country in the 100m.

Burrell continued his late season surge by reaching the 100m finals at the USATF Outdoor Championships. However he was placed in lane 1 following a poor semifinal race and subsequently finished seventh with a time of 10.19s.

He will still have a chance to represent the United States this summer as the Cougars will represent Team USA at the Summer Universiade in Taipei, Taiwan, starting August 19.