Rancocas Valley graduate Kevin Burr, who never picked up a javelin until 13 months ago, qualified for the NCAA Championships on Wednesday with a nine-foot PR.
Burr, a true freshman at Tenneessee, had the 6th-best throw at the NCAA East First Round in Lexington, Ky., Wednesday with a 234-6. The top 12 in each of two regions advance to the NCAA Championships. Of 96 qualifiers in the two regions, Burr’s 234-6 was 13th-best.
The 102nd annual NCAA Division 1 Championships are scheduled for June 5-8 at Hayward Field on the University of Oregon campus in Eugene.
Burr’s previous PR was 225-0, which he threw at both the University of Central Florida Black & Gold Invite in Orlando in his first college meet and again at the Desert Heat Classic in Tucson late last month.
He opened with a PR 228-0 and then hit 234-6 on his 2nd attempt and 226-4 on his 3rd, so he had the three-best throws of his life back-to-back-to-back. Any of the three would have qualified him for NCAAs. The cutoff in the East First Round was 223-7 and 226-0 in the West.
Burr broke Tennessee’s freshman javelin record of 232-10 set in 2001 by Leigh Smith in Columbia, S.C. Overall, his throw is No. 7 in Volunteers history and the best throw since Kyle Quinn’s 240-0 in a meet at Conway, S.C., in 2016.
Burr didn’t throw 150 feet last year until the Burlington County Open in mid-May and PR’d with a 204-4 when he placed 2nd at the Meet of Champions.
His throw is No. 7 in South Jersey history and No. 11 on the all-time New Jersey performance list. He’s just short of the Rancocas Valley alumni record of 236-5 set in Austin in 2019 by Nick Mirabelli.
His 234-6 ranks 31st among U.S. men this year and is the best throw by a freshman in NCAA Division 1 this year. He was the only freshman in either region to advance to NCAAs.
It’s not clear whether Burr has Under-20 eligibility, but if his 20th birthday is after midnight on Dec. 31, he would instantly become among the favorites at the U.S. Under-20 Championships next month in Eugene. The meet selects the U.S. team for World Under-20s in Lima, Peru, in August.
Burr has surpassed the B standard for Olympic Trials qualifying, which means he’d qualify if he’s among the top 24 entries even without the A stanadard of 246-0 ¾.
287-9 … Curtis Thompson [Florence], July 4, 2016, Eugene, Ore.
261-2 … Vince Labosky [Holy Cross], June 15, 1990, Norwalk, Calif.
261-2 … Tim VanLiew [Deptford], May 21, 2016, Tucson, Ariz.
251-6 … Chris Mirabelli [Holy Cross], April 29, 2017, Philadelphia
249-9 … Cade Antonucci [Holy Spirit], June 9, 2021, Eugene, Ore.
236-5 … Nick Mirabelli [Rancocas Valley], March 27-30, 2019, Austin, Texas
234-6 … Kevin Burr [Rancocas Valley], March 15, Orlando, Fla.
214-6 … Sean Biehn [Burlington City], May 8, 2010, Ewing, N.J.
213-2 … Edgar Rosa [Paulsboro], April 8, 2023, Glassboro, N.J.
212-2 … Alexander Georgiou [Timber Creek], 2017
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 