St. Thomas seniors Mallory Burnham and Max Dunne turned in strong showings at this year‘s NCAA Division-III Indoor Track and Field Championships in Lincoln, Nebraska this weekend.
Burnham finished second in the 60-meter hurdles and third in the 60-meter dash, while Dunne finished third in the heptathlon. Both athletes’ performances earned them All-American honors for each of their events.
“I’m happy with the results because I know I gave my best and tried my hardest,” Burnham said. “I ran a personal best in the hurdles and a good race in the 60-meter, and I’m happy with the way I closed out my indoor track career.”
Dunne also said he was satisfied with his performance at the national meet. 
St. Thomas senior Max Dunne displays his All-America trophy with Coach Erik Diley. Dunne was named an All-American in the heptathlon for the second time in his career. (Photo Courtesy of Butch Dunne).
“I had family members there to cheer me on, and I wanted to go out and make them proud; and I wanted to make myself and my coach proud too,” Dunne said.
Burnham has run in the NCAA Championships before as a member of the Tommies’ All-American 4×100-meter relay team, but this year was a new experience for the newly-minted five-time All-American.
“I’ve been here as part of the 4×100-meter relay team in past years, but when you’re there alone, it’s a different feeling,” Burnham said. “You don’t have as many people cheering you on.”
Burnham ran a personal-best 8.60 seconds in the 60-meter hurdles, and finished second to Tashina McAllister from Wartburg College (Iowa) by .07 after a bit of a setback toward the end of the race.
“I hit arms with the girls on the inside lane then accidentally grazed the last hurdle,” Burnham said. “It might have slowed me down, but (McAllister) just ran a great race too.”
For Burnham, a three-time MIAC champion in the 60-meter hurdles, a second place finish in the event was something she couldn’t dwell on for long. 
“After the hurdles, I was upset, but I knew I needed to focus and warm up by myself for my next race,” Burnham said.
Burnham ran the 60-meter dash in 7.60 seconds, but finished third behind Illinois Wesleyan sophomore Nia Joiner, and Central College (Iowa) sophomore Abigail Davis, who clocked in at 7.58 and 7.59 respectively.
St. Thomas sprint and hurdle coach Aaron Lund said he knew that Burnham ran another good race, but her competitors were just too tough.
“Mallory ran her absolute best and made it a neck-and-neck race throughout, but the other two girls just ran amazing,” Lund said.
Dunne, a two-time All-American in the heptathlon, achieved a personal best for his overall heptathlon score by registering 5,146 points, besting his previous high at the national meet by 95 points.
“My score after the first day of events was around 100 points lower than it was at the same point at the MIAC Conference meet,” Dunn said. “But I feel like I had a very strong second day to close the gap.”
Dunne finished in the top five in three out of the heptathlon’s seven events and said consistency was the key to his success.
“I don’t have one event that is my strongest or one event that is my weakest,” Dunn said. “I feel I’m just consistent across the board and well-prepared in each event.”
Lund was able to watch Dunne from afar and was impressed by his consistency as well.
“From what I saw throughout the weekend, Max looked good in every event. There wasn’t really one that hurt him in the long run,” Lund said.
The seven events that constituted the heptathlon were split up over the two days of the meet with four events on Friday and three on Saturday.
Dunne concluded Friday with a tenth-place finish in the 60-meter dash with a time of 7.26 seconds, tied for fifth in the long jump with a leap of 6.40 meters, third in shot put with a heave of 12.55 meters and tied for sixth in the high jump with a height of 1.87 meters.
Dunne finished Saturday tied for second in the pole vault with a height of 4.60 meters, tenth in the 60 meter hurdles with a time of 8.77 seconds and eighth place in the 1000-meters with a personal best time of 2:50:01.
Dunne and Gustavus’ Cameron Clause both broke the nine-year-old MIAC meet record in the heptathlon earlier this year with scores of 5,030 and 5,088, respectively. Dunne’s score at the national meet would have eclipsed Clause’s new MIAC meet record by 58 points.
For Burnham and Dunne the awards that come along with their accomplishments don’t seem to mean as much as the reward of knowing they gave it all they had to earn the accomplishments themselves.
“I have all my trophies and awards somewhere in my room,” Burnham said. “Maybe when I graduate I’ll build a shelf for them or something.”
“I’ll just give my trophy to my mom probably,” Dunne said with a laugh. “She likes collecting stuff like that of mine.”
Tom Pitzen can be reached at pitz2014@stthomas.edu