Burnett attains number one NCAA ranking
… Records personal best
Guyana Chronicle
February 13, 2002

GUYANA’S middle-distance track star, Marian Joan Burnett, is making a big impact on the statistics register in the South Eastern Conference (SEC) of the U.S. National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) track and field circuit. She is now ranked number one at 800 metres following a string of impressive showings recently.

According to weekend-before-last’s edition of the Trackwire Dandy Dozen, a web-based NCAA publication, the Guyanese track standout has now moved up to the top position after holding down the number two ranking since the start of the Indoor track season in mid-January.

Each week, the Trackwire Dandy Dozen ranks the top individuals in each event from around the U.S. It is used to generate the Trackwire Top 25, the power ranking of NCCA Division 1 track and field teams. The Trackwire 25 projects a hypothetical score for the NCAA meets, factoring in injury reports and other variables supported by information gathered from NCAA coaches across the U.S.

Reports from the U.S. state that the coaches at Burnett’s new school, Louisana State University (LSU), have expressed amazement and satisfaction at her performance.

They said it is not often that you get an athlete entering the NCAA Division 1 register at such a high position, and then enhancing that without delay. The reports also added that they expect greater showings from the young Guyanese policewoman as the season progresses to the NCAA Indoor Championships in March.

Well the coaches didn’t have long to wait for these greater showings. As early as last weekend’s Armory Classic Indoor “Meet of Champions” in New York, Burnett celebrated her top ranking by winning the 800-metre for collegiate women. In the process she recorded her personal best time of 2:06,07, which bettered her previous best of 2:08.0 (Indoor) and 2:06.08 (Outdoor). The performance was even more amazing when officials at the meet informed that she had also broken the track’s 800-metre record for collegiate women.

Burnett’s showing earned her an automatic qualification for next month’s NCAA Indoor Championships. She is, however, being rested by her coaches and will miss this weekend’s LSU Twilight meet to be held on her home track. She returns to competition on February 23 and 24 at the SEC Indoor Championships in Arkansas.

In her first event in an LSU uniform, Burnett had won the 800-metre at the SEC Big-6 Indoor in Arkansas. Her time of 2:09.6 is a provisional qualification for the National Championships. She followed that with easy wins at the Purple Tiger meet in Louisana and the Adidas Invitational in Nebraska, while she anchored the LSU ‘A’ 4x400 metres relay squad to a NCAA provisional qualification.

The report says that the LSU coaches also exposed Burnett to her first competitive run at 400 metres in Nebraska where she recorded her personal best (PB) indoor time of 54.8 seconds in placing fourth. She failed by one-tenth of a second to record a NCAA qualification in the event.

The former junior college All-American is on a Presidential Student-Athlete Scholarship at Louisana State University, where her Lady Tigers female track team has been NCAA champions 12 times in the last 15 years. (Donovan Maatthews).