Mount Desert Island’s Miles Burr races to victory in the 200 meters at the Class B outdoor track championships at Freeport High on June 3. Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer
Miles Burr has raced his way into rare company.
The 6-foot, 174-pound junior at Mt. Desert Island High became just the third boy from Maine to place first or second in a New England championship sprint race (100, 200 or 400 meters) in the 21st century.
And Burr did it three times in one day, finishing second in all three sprints, including a Maine all-time best mark of 21.67 seconds in the 200 meters, at the New England meet at Bangor’s Cameron Stadium on June 10.
“It was a really good day, good competition and pushed me and I had the best run of my life,” Burr said.
Burr joins elite company with Jarett Flaker of Scarborough and Andrew Farr of Gorham. Flaker, now competing for George Mason University, won the 200 (22.12) and was second in the 400 (48.23) in 2019 as a junior. Farr, now running for Yale, won the 200 (21.95) and was second in both the 100 (11.00) and 400 (48.27) as a senior in 2022.
Burr – who also won two races at the Class B state championships, placed second in another race and finished third in the triple jump – is our clear choice for the 2023 Varsity Maine boys’ outdoor track Athlete of the Year.
Burr started his New England meet with a personal best of 10.84 seconds in the 100 meters.
Burr set another personal best in the 400 meters of 48.98, running in the third of four heats. It was just the fifth competitive 400-meter race in Burr’s career.
“The 400 is a grueling race and for him to go out there after having not competed very often in that event and take the race strategy and execute at such a high level is tremendous and shows a lot of grit and determination,” said Ezra Hallett, the MDI boys’ track coach.
Burr said normally he feels a level of exhaustion after the 400 and that can affect his performance in the 200. But after the 400 PR, “I was proud and hyped for my 200,” he said.
In the 200, Burr was again in the third of four heats, along with Class A champion Rowan Carter of Marshwood. Burr blistered an all-time Maine best time of 21.67 seconds. In the final heat, Stylz Mitchell of Xavier High in Middletown, Connecticut, ran 21.66 to nip Burr by a hundredth of a second.
“I’m definitely most proud of my 200,” Burr said. “That was the one I put the work in for most of the season and it really paid off with a huge PR. I PR’ed by two-tenths of a second.”
Burr tested his speed against even tougher competition at the New Balance Nationals in Philadelphia. He finished 18th in the championship 100 meters, lowering his a new personal-best to 10.74 seconds – just three-hundredths off Flaker’s all-time Maine best.
“It was nice to be around a whole bunch of really fast kids. In the 100, I was running in the same heat with the fastest kid in the nation,” Burr said, referring to Issam Asinga, a senior from Montverde Academy in Florida, who won the event in 10.05 seconds.
Hallett says that when Burr gets on the track he is “all business, all the time. He is able to pour his heart and soul into every race and that is something you cannot coach.”
One thing Hallett would not coach is Burr’s unorthodox running style. Hallett said the announcers for the New England meet called him “Mr. Head-Bob.” Burr has described his form as looking like a “chicken or an ostrich.”
Hallett said part of the training focus going into Burr’s senior season is to do more work in the weight room and “some additional form work to help stabilize his head and one of the other things we’re really going to work on is a little more arm drive.”
Burr is already looking ahead to next season, intent on improvement.
“My goal is always to get new PRs and that would be 21.5 in the 200 and I would like to start running sub 10.7 in the 100,” Burr said.
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