MANCHESTER, NH – Chase Burris hasn’t trained in more than a month.
That didn’t stop him from competing on the state’s biggest stage.
And compete he did, this past weekend, when he broke a 60-year-old school record in long jump.
With a leap of 23-feet, 3.75-inches at New England’s, Burris, a junior, won the June 8 event at the New England Track & Field Championships at the University of New Hampshire.
In doing so, he topped Darryl Buck’s 1964 record by an inch.
Just another day for Burris, who picked up long jumping two years ago and continues to improve each meet despite not being able to train due to a groin injury suffered in early May.
“All I’ve been doing is heating and icing my groin and trying to not walk and move around much,” he said. “I think, since I don’t run or anything after the meets and let my groin heal, it doesn’t affect me much the first two jumps. But after that (it feels like) I fully re-injure it again, but all I try to do is not think about the pain and just jump.”
Now, heading into his senior season, Burris said he hopes to continue to improve at the high school level with the goal of competing in college. The state record of 23-feet, 5.25-inches, set in 1998 by Timberlane’s Taylor Smith, is also within reach.
“Chase is a big meet competitor who likes the spotlight on him when he competes,” said his coach, Thomas Lynch. “He also is very focused at these big meets, so there is very little I need to do or say to him he already knows what needs to be done.”
Prior to New Englands, he won the long jump at states with a top distance of 22 feet, 2.25 inches, and then qualified at the Meet of Champions with a fourth-place 21-feet, 6 inches before passing on his last three jumps.
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