Special graduation for running Burak sisters
HUNTLEY — Breanna and Brittney Burak are sisters who not only ended their athletic careers at the IHSA State Track and Field Championships, but did so on the winning Class 3A team.
The distance runners qualified for state in the 3,200 meter run. Breanna clocked a 10:40.36 to earn a fifth-place finish for HHS, while Brittney ended 16th in a time of 11:03.59 at Eastern Illinois University May 20.
“She is our best distance runner ever at HHS,” head coach Jason Monson said of Breanna. “She understands the sport better than anyone and her legacy will last forever in Huntley history.”
Breanna Burak earned the distance runner MVP. She will run in track and field and cross country at Illinois State University this fall. Brittney Burak will also compete as a collegiate this fall at Indiana State University.
The Buraks as they along with fellow Class of 2023 members Ally Panzloff (discus champion) and Alexandria Johnson (long jump champion) received their diplomas from HHS Principal Dr. Marcus Belin at the team post-season dinner, due to state track finals falling on graduation day.
The Buraks were coming off successful cross country seasons, as Breanna was 12th at state and Brittney 21st, Breanna won the 3,200, in a then personal best, at the Huntley sectional, and Brittney qualified for state with by making qualifying time in fourth.
Both sisters summed up the season which led to the state track and field title.
“Everyone on the team took extra measures to improve and have an impact on our state title,” Brittney said. “Everyone is really supportive of each other and being a part of an atmosphere like that always gets us through the challenges and makes our accomplishments feel so much more special. It didn’t really hit me that winning would be a reality until I looked at our rankings and realized our girls were more than capable of outperforming the seeds in multiple events.”
She added, “we knew we were in the lead by a lot but we weren’t sure if that would change over the course of the next couple of events. One of the coaches told us that it was mathematically impossible for us to move to second and it did not feel real at first. It was crazy to see our team goal become a reality and we were all so happy for each other and being a part of the process.”
Breanna Burak commented on how the day progressed for the Red Raiders at state.
“Going into the finals, we knew we had an advantage because of how well we did in the preliminaries, once we all finished our events in the finals we had to wait for a few points to roll in,” Breanna said. “It was hard for me to calculate points because I was too distracted by the atmosphere and living in the moment. I was just excited that all of our team executed well and was happy about our performances.”
HHS topped Prospect, 62.5 to 52 points and the dream was true.
“When I first found out we won the meet I could not believe that we finally made it to the top,” Breanna said. “Some of the girls had been down state with us the past few years and I was excited to see that our growth and development as a team was showing and getting us to somewhere special. When we all found out we won I was in denial at first. It takes a lot to win a state championship and everyone of our girls put something great into it.”
“Our girls have just been working hard all year for this,” Breanna concluded. “We had a great team coming off of last year and I think once we saw our potential it really helped us focus on our individual events and how we could be best at them to score points for our team at state. All of us have been super supportive of each other the whole season and I think we all learned a thing or two about each other’s events.
“As a distance runner, it was cool to see all of the different aspects of training and performance go into sprints, jumps and throws. I think us being involved in each other’s successes helped create a championship atmosphere,” Breanna said.
