SVI Media was fortunate enough to get ahold of defending 3A cross country state champion Owen Burnett on this past Friday’s edition of First Bank of Wyoming Sports Friday who has one of the more unique paths to athletic participation out there as a student at Kemmerer High School, Owen calls himself a Ranger for most of the school year but during the Fall once school lets out and Cross Country practice begins Owen suddenly finds himself a Mountain View Buffalo.

“It’s kind of a unique opportunity to see a different coaching style so I like to look at it in a positive way” – Burnett’s comments on running for a different school during the fall season.

The Kemmerer Rangers do not have a cross country program but do run track and field in the spring so Owen stays with his home school for the track season but is forced to make the trek each day during the Fall to participate in the Cross Country season and many of his opponents may wish he simply didn’t considering how many he has left in his dust since joining the Buffalos. This does however give Owen some road-trip companionship as multiple Kemmerer runners join him on the Mountain View Cross Country team and they usually carpool over to Mountain View every Monday and Wednesday for those 2 practices each week.

Burnett’s biggest training though as he says usually comes during the Summer, paraphrasing a common expression among runners that it is the most important time of the year which can be helpful to a runner who has to journey to a different school and can only attend 2 team practices per week. The hard work during the offseason ramping himself up to being in peak running shape to be able to get to a point of running 40 miles per week before he begins his tempo and speed training finally can rear it’s head and pay off come fall and Owen hopes will pay off once again come state as he looks to defend his 3A championship.

“The main things that’s always been on the plate for Mountain View this season is returning to win another 3A title, to repeat. Last year was the first year in the schools history we won a state title as a team, and this year we are looking to do the same thing again.” Burnett stated when prompted for his goals this season, adding “And individually of course I am looking to repeat as well. My main goal is to get Gatorade Athlete of the Year”

Owen also looks toward his future as his high school running days near their conclusion, “I would really like to attend U Dub I have a dream to be a Cowboy and to run for that team.”

Owen has been in contact with the Wyoming Cowboys cross country coaching staff regarding the possibility of being scouted to run for the Division 1 school, he has also taken calls from Weber State so he appears to have options ahead of him if he chooses to run at the next level, but made it clear his preference was to remain within the Wyoming border and run in Laramie.