Menu
Tuesday, June 26, 2018
Paul Unterreiner didn't know what to expect. The Notre Dame track and field coach knew Riley Burger had done well working out of her five-step triple jump approach in practice, but her first jump of the season under the bright lights of competition? That's another animal all together.
The sophomore took off down the runway and toward the start of her state championship defense, launched off the board and through her hop, step and jump, sailing forward with the sand slipping by beneath her until her heels detonated the silt below.
2018 All-Missourian Girls Track and Field - Riley Burger - Notre Dame High School
KASSI JACKSON
Unterreiner looked on anxiously. But as he saw the mark and watched Burger pick herself up out of the pit, he saw everything he needed to know.
"She came climbing out of that sand looking happy as can be and I thought, 'OK, we're good,'" Unterreiner said.
Good enough for a Class 4 District 1 triple jump title.
Burger's first jump of the spring won her a district championship. Her first two jumps actually, as she bested the competition in both the triple jump -- her primary event -- and the long jump, for which she hadn't even practiced. Then she was the best triple jumper at the sectional meet. Her third competition of the season saw her win an MSHSAA state championship in the triple jump for a second straight year.
After leaping, quite literally, onto the scene a year ago as a freshman, Burger was forced to sit out most of this spring with an injury. She overcame that injury and solidified herself atop the triple jump pecking order in the state of Missouri, along the way also earning a all-state finishes in the long jump and on Notre Dame's 1,600-meter relay squad.
Her impressive show of not just physical but also mental fortitude has earned Burger the title of 2018 Southeast Missourian Girls Track and Field Athlete of the Year, taking that honor for a second consecutive year.
Through two years of high school, Burger has made everything look absurdly easy. But in 2018, looks were somewhat deceiving.
2018 All-Missourian Girls Track and Field - Riley Burger - Notre Dame High School
KASSI JACKSON
Getting derailed
Burger might not even be participating in track and field if it wasn't for basketball. It was on the court that Unterreiner first saw her touch the rim without blinking, leading him to suggest -- in the way a parent "suggests" a child clean up their room -- she join forces with the Bulldogs track and field team.
A three-sport athlete, Burger's profile grew exponentially this year, as she became a contributor for a softball team that finished as state runner-up in the fall before earning a regular starting role for the Bulldogs varsity basketball squad as a 5-foot-8 pogo stick of a center. All of this suits Burger just fine. Her philosophy is a straight-forward one: if she can compete, she's up for it.
But with the basketball season winding down, things went sideways for Burger. Late in a game she came down awkwardly on her knee, and immediately her thoughts veered toward the upcoming track and field season.
"I felt terrible after. I was scared for the track season," Burger said. "I was just not ready going forward right then. I was like, 'Oh, shoot. This is not good.'"
The diagnosis was a torn posterier cruciate ligament.
Burger, it seems, is in perpetual motion. Stopping that motion does not come naturally to her. The reality, though, was the injury was a continuation of what's been a bumpy 12 months. In fact, Burger said she developed a stress fracture in her foot just about the time her freshman track season ended, and it went undiagnosed through summer and ultimately cost her a good chunk of the softball season.
Worse, her PCL injury threatened to vaporize the season in which she shines the brightest. She was limited to zero physical ctivity for two weeks, then four weeks of rehabilitation and eight weeks until she could run.
As March began, Burger became a spectator, and that is something she is decidedly not good at.
"She absolutely hated it at first," Unterreiner said. "She's not one to sit around. But I tell you what, she adjusted really well, took care of herself, but also came to everything and anything and was a fantastic teammate."
To Burger, watching track season buzz by, eight weeks may as well have been eight years.
"I thought it was way slower," Burger said. "The doctor never gave me a specific time period. He said, 'It just takes time until you feel that it's all right.' I think it took longer than I had hoped -- longer than I had expected and my family had expected -- but I guess it came out at the perfect time. It's all part of God's plan, right?"
Unterreiner and Notre Dame jumps coach Ryan Long let the waiting game play out, leaving the final decision in the hands of Burger and her family.
"I'm a big proponent of multi-sport (participation)," said Unterreiner, who coaches Notre Dame boys basketball as well, "so it is what it is. It was a bummer, but ... me and Ryan Long looked at is a sign from the good Lord above that she needed some rest and it wasn't going to hurt her. Knowing she wouldn't need surgery and we'd get her back by districts, we felt good about it."
Burger called the break equal parts stressful and relaxing, but her body had time to heal from all the other little injuries she'd been fighting through.
As she recovered, the Bulldogs eased her back into competition, getting her involved in relay running with just a couple of weeks remaining in the regular season. It was a way to build her back up physically, but it was also a necessity -- not ready to jump again yet, Burger, per MSHSAA rules, had to compete in any event during the regular season to be eligible for the postseason. Running opened that door for her.
"Literally a week before districts, she made the decision to jump," Unterreiner said. "She did her first five-step triple jump approach maybe Saturday, a week out from districts. She felt pretty good and we went from there. She mainly worked on her boards and hitting her boards, and really that's what she worked on the rest of the season and relied on her training from last year taking over."
Burger was ready, and she was fresh.
2018 All-Missourian Girls Track and Field - Riley Burger - Notre Dame High School
KASSI JACKSON
Unbelievable
While Burger had not had time to train jumps prior to the postseason, Unterreiner and Long believed "even an average Riley" could crash through districts and sectionals, giving her those few precious weeks to continue practicing before the state meet.
That belief proved prescient. Just weeks into competing, Burger headed to state in three events, and with district and sectional trophies on her shelf.
Once in Jefferson City, Missouri, Burger put up a mark of 17-11.5 in the long jump on Day 1, claiming fourth place and erasing a lackluster performance (15-11, 11th place) in the event a year earlier.
Then the triple jump rolled around on Day 2, and it was show time.
When Warrensburg's Makenzy Mizera hit 39 flat with her sixth and final jump, it pushed her into the lead and, in stark contrast to a year ago, Burger was suddenly chasing. Until she threw down a 39-6.5 with her last jump.
2018 All-Missourian Girls Track and Field - Riley Burger - Notre Dame High School
KASSI JACKSON
"Basically when I got on the runway I was just telling myself, 'You've got to run fast, you've got to go hard, you've got to not worry about the board. You just gotta let God take this jump for you,'" Burger said.
The distance fell short of her mark from a year ago and her self-proclaimed goal prior to the season -- 42 feet -- but it was a performance Unterreiner said is, in overcoming adversity, more impressive than her first title.
"As a coach, it was a cool thing to watch because you're watching a world-class athlete who has the mindset that she wants to win four triple jump state titles, and [she had] quite the devastating blow to start the track season," Unterreiner said. "To watch her mature was a cool experience; to watch her handle that and be the teammate she was; and to see it finish with a bang was a really cool thing to watch."
None of this shocks Unterreiner. Expectations go by the wayside with Burger, because she simply lifts the ceiling over and over again.
Just last week, at a meet in North Carolina, Burger jumped 41 feet -- a personal record after just two months of training. That mark would have placed her 13th at the USA Track and Field Outdoor Championships last week and would have been 23rd at the NCAA Track and Field Championships earlier this month. And she still has two more years of high school in front of her.
"It's almost sad -- there should be some surprise to it, but the natural ability for her in that event is truly something I haven't seen before," Unterreiner said. "... Her work ethic and her mindset match that natural ability. I just think the future is incredibly bright for her. I'd be surprised if 41 seems a like a big jump for her from here on."
The bigger surprise will be if she doesn't rewrite expectations every time she crashes into the pit. Her goal for next spring is to jump 43 feet; short of another injury, there's nothing that could convince Unterreiner his young prodigy won't reach that mark.
"If she gets a year of strength training, I can't see her not doing it," Unterreiner said. "That's crazy to say. It doesn't even make sense."
Gallery photos
