Westminster's Burdine continues to burn up the track

But the thought of falling flat on her face has never crossed the Westminster senior sprinter's mind.

"I've practiced so much with the blocks that I just know that it'll never happen," Burdine said. 

Living on the edge has helped the senior speedster get those crucial tenths of a second this year as she notched a win in the 200-meter dash with a season-best time of 24.86 seconds at the Dale Collier Invitational held at Kirkwood High School on Saturday afternoon.  

Burdine became the second runner this year to break the 25-second barrier in the 200-meter dash, joining Pattonvile's A'Laji Bradley who holds the area's best time of 24.46 set at the Ladue Brusca-Strohbach Invitational last week. 

It's the first time anyone from Westminster has broken the 25-second barrier in the 200-meter dash since Saenea Williams ran a 24.58 in 2015. 

"She works her butt off, she doesn't complain — she does the work," Westminster coach Larry Miner said. "I think since it's her senior year, she wants to go out on top."

With the postseason just around the corner, Burdine admits she's still not where she wants to be knowing the likes of Bradley and Cardinal Ritter's Aniyah Brown lurking in Class 5.

"I honestly want to get my times down a little more," Burdine said. "I'm in Class 5, that's huge competition, just trying to keep dropping my time."

Being a pro in the blocks, Burdine has really focused on speed workouts and has jumped into some of the boys' exercises to really help hone that speed into something she can use.

"I get pushed by them and sometimes I beat them," Burdine said. "That really helps me in practice."

While she's proven to be more than capable of running the 200-meter dash, her love is the 400-meter dash.

"With the 400-meter dash, she has the stages of it down to a science," Miner said. "I'll tell a lot of my 400-meter runners to watch Sydney because she goes out hard out of the blocks and then she hits a certain percentage where she glides before turning it on at the 200-meter dash spot."

The future Southeast Missouri State runner didn't participate in the 100-meter and 400-meter dash on Saturday as the coaching staff didn't want to complicate anything for their star. 

Burdine is ready to add the extra workload when the postseason kicks off in a few weeks.

"I'm just ready. I'm hungry," Burdine said.

One of the things that Miner has noticed about the former Trinity Catholic standout has been how hard she has hit the weight room to build up her strength.

He knows that the extra weight has helped unlock some faster speeds earlier than expected. And that will help her when she dons the black and red at SEMO.

"Once she really gets into it, her ceiling is high," Miner said.