From the North Woods to the Starting Line: The Sevanna Burke Story
There are not many Division II college sprinters and hurdlers who can say they grew up in a town of fewer than 1,000 people, in a corner of Wisconsin most people drive through rather than to. Sevanna Burke can. She is a native of Trego, Wisconsin, a small community nestled in Washburn County in the northwestern part of the state — lake country, timber country, the kind of place where the landscape is spectacular and the athletic infrastructure is not exactly built for aspiring collegiate track stars. That she developed into a versatile sprints-and-hurdles competitor capable of competing at the NCAA Division II level while growing up there says something meaningful about both her talent and her work ethic.
Burke is currently a sophomore at the University of Minnesota Duluth, where she competes for the Bulldogs in the sprints and hurdles events. She has, in just under two collegiate seasons, established herself as a consistent contributor to one of the NSIC’s more ambitious track and field programs — a team that has been building toward sustained conference success under head coach Karly Brautigam. For a young woman from Trego, that trajectory is worth telling.
Growing Up in Northwest Wisconsin: Trego and Spooner
Trego sits in the heart of Wisconsin’s lake district, a few miles from the Namekagon River and not far from the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest. It is the kind of community where neighbors know each other and youth sports are organized through necessity as much as infrastructure — you make do with what you have, and often what you have requires a drive to the nearest larger town to find the facilities and competition you need. For Sevanna Burke, that nearby town was Spooner, the Washburn County seat about fifteen miles southeast of Trego, and the home of Spooner High School, where she would become one of the most decorated prep hurdlers the school has produced in recent memory.
Spooner High School competes in the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association’s Division 2 classification, which encompasses mid-sized schools across the state. Northwest Wisconsin’s Division 2 programs do not typically churn out blue-chip track recruits, but they do produce athletes forged by cold-weather training, long bus rides, and a particular kind of competitive toughness that comes from having to work harder than your counterparts in better-equipped urban programs to get the same results. Burke absorbed all of that.
High School Career at Spooner: Building the Foundation
Burke’s competitive record at Spooner High School traces the arc of a young athlete who arrived with raw athletic gifts and steadily translated them into documented results. Her specialty — the hurdles, both the 100 metres hurdles and the 300 metres hurdles — requires a combination of flat sprinting speed and the technical coordination to clear barriers rhythmically over a short course. It is a demanding event group that rewards athletes who are willing to put in the technical repetition required to develop proper stride patterns and clearance mechanics, often in conditions that are less than ideal for Wisconsin prep athletes training through the spring.
A breakthrough moment came at the 2023 Packy Paquette Invitational, hosted by the University of Wisconsin-Superior in April of that year. In the girls’ 55-metre hurdles, Burke pulled ahead of the field to win the event outright in 9.29 seconds. It was a performance that put her name on the radar of the regional track and field community — a Spooner athlete winning an invitational hurdles race against competitors from across northwest Wisconsin and the Lake Superior region is the kind of result that starts conversations about college potential.
The 2023 WIAA State Track and Field Championships provided an even bigger stage. As a junior, Burke qualified for the state meet in the Division 2 girls’ 300 metres hurdles — one of the most competitive field of hurdle events on the Wisconsin prep calendar. She cleared the preliminary rounds and advanced to the final, where she ran a strong 46.02 seconds to place eighth in the state. Eighth place among the top eight girls’ 300-metre hurdlers in Division 2 across all of Wisconsin is not a footnote; it is a significant accomplishment for a junior from a small program in a rural county, and it confirmed that Burke’s talents extended well beyond the regional level.
Her senior year — the 2023-24 school year — brought continued development and a final chapter of high school competition before she committed to UMD Duluth and made the transition to college athletics. The trajectory she had established through her junior year, combined with her college prospects, made her one of the more intriguing track recruits from northwest Wisconsin in the class of 2024.
The Choice of UMD Duluth
When Sevanna Burke chose the University of Minnesota Duluth, she was selecting a program with significant history in NCAA Division II athletics. UMD is one of the most successful Division II athletic departments in the country, with a track and field program that competes in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) — one of the most competitive Division II conferences in the nation. The Bulldogs have regularly placed athletes on national performance lists, contributed to conference championships, and developed sprinters and field event athletes who go on to represent the school at the national level.
For Burke, the geography likely held some appeal as well. Duluth, Minnesota sits on the western tip of Lake Superior, roughly an hour’s drive from Spooner down Highway 63 and US-2 — close enough to home to provide familiarity, far enough to represent a meaningful next step. The UMD campus overlooks the city and the lake from the hillside above downtown Duluth, and the athletic facilities include the Ward Wells Fieldhouse for indoor competition and the James S. Malosky Stadium for outdoor meets.
She is majoring in Marketing and Graphic Design at UMD — a dual focus that reflects both creative and analytical aptitudes, and one that pairs interestingly with competitive athletics. Marketing and design programs reward students who can balance creative thinking with strategic execution, which is not entirely unlike the mindset required to compete seriously in a technical sprint-and-hurdle event group.
Freshman Season (2024-25): An Immediate Contributor
Sevanna Burke’s freshman year at UMD was, by the metrics available, a productive introduction to college-level track and field. She competed across a range of events in both the indoor and outdoor seasons, contributed to relay teams, and demonstrated the kind of multi-event versatility that coaches value in a developing sprints-and-hurdles athlete.
Indoor season results from the 2024-25 campaign show Burke competing in events including the 60-metre hurdles and the 400 metres, along with relay contributions. At the CSS Opener on December 14, 2024, she posted a 9.40 in the 60-metre hurdles — her first documented college hurdles mark — along with relay and 400-metre contributions. Her indoor 400-metre best of 1:00.90, set at the Ted Nelson Classic, placed her in the team’s season-best rankings for the event. She was also a component of the Bulldogs’ relay squad, appearing in the team’s 4×400 relay pool throughout the indoor season.
As the indoor season progressed, her times showed the gradual improvement typical of a first-year college athlete learning the rhythms of a more demanding competitive schedule. At the NSIC Indoor Championship in late February 2025, she was part of the 4×400 relay team that secured a fourth-place conference finish, contributing to the team’s overall points total at the conference level. For a freshman in her first conference championship appearance, earning relay points in the final standings is a meaningful contribution.
The outdoor season of spring 2025 continued her development. TFRRS records show Burke among the top outdoor performers on the team in the 100-metre hurdles, where she posted a personal best of 16.02 at the UMD Bulldog Open on April 26, 2025. She also competed in the 400-metre hurdles, where her personal best of 1:06.46, set at the Meet of the UnSaintly on April 30, 2025, ranked her in the top 45 in the NCAA Division II Central Region for the event. That regional standing, for a freshman competing in her first outdoor college season, is a credible result.
She ran 1:07.87 in the 400-metre hurdles at the Wartburg Outdoor Select on April 4, 2025, showing consistent engagement with the event across multiple meets. The 1:06.46 personal best that came later in the season at the Meet of the UnSaintly represented meaningful improvement and confirmed that the 400 hurdles may be an event where she has particularly strong development potential heading into future seasons.
Sophomore Season (2025-26): Growing Role and Academic Recognition
The 2025-26 indoor season has represented another step forward for Burke, both athletically and academically. The most visible athletic contributions came at the NSIC Indoor Track and Field Championships in late February 2026, where she appeared in two notable team results.
She was part of the 4×400-metre relay that finished fourth at the NSIC Indoor Championships, joining senior Kate Fitzgerald, freshman Emily Beaham, and sophomore Avary Fitzpatrick — a relay that placed among the top four programs in the entire Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference. Fourth place at a conference championship is a podium placement that earns points for the team, and being selected as a relay component at that level indicates the coaching staff’s confidence in her ability to execute under championship pressure.
She also contributed to the women’s 4,000-metre relay (the distance medley relay component) that placed third at the NSIC Indoor Championships, running alongside graduate distance star Shaelyn Hostager, senior Madeline Verkerke, and junior Ellie Hanowski. The DMR is an event that pairs sprinters with distance runners across four different leg distances, and placing third at the conference level in that event is a significant team achievement. It speaks to Burke’s flexibility as a competitor — she is useful not only in the pure sprint events but in relay configurations that cross event group boundaries.
The academic side of her sophomore season has been equally notable. Burke was named to the NSIC All-Academic Team of Excellence for the 2026 winter athletic season — a distinction that requires a cumulative GPA of 3.60 or higher. The asterisk (*) beside her name in the official NSIC announcement specifically denotes this highest tier of academic honor. To compete at the conference championship level in multiple relay events while maintaining a GPA high enough to earn All-Academic Team of Excellence honors is exactly the kind of dual achievement that defines student-athlete success at the Division II level.
UMD head coach Karly Brautigam has spoken publicly about the program’s combination of experience and emerging young talent, and Burke fits squarely into the category of an athlete whose contributions are growing season by season. The women’s program finished fourth at the 2026 NSIC Indoor Championships — their strongest team finish in years by some measures — and Burke was part of the relay teams that contributed to that result.
The Event Profile: Sprints and Hurdles
Burke’s event classification at UMD is “Sprints/Hurdles,” which reflects the multi-event nature of her competitive profile. The hurdles events — both the 60-metre indoor hurdles and the 100-metre and 400-metre outdoor hurdles — require a foundation of genuine sprinting speed married to technical hurdle clearance work. The 400-metre hurdles in particular demands an additional element of tactical endurance racing, as runners must manage their stride pattern across ten barriers over a full lap of the track while maintaining enough speed to compete against other fast-twitch athletes.
Her high school background at Spooner, where she competed in both the 100-metre hurdles and the 300-metre hurdles (the high school equivalent of the 400-metre hurdles), built a foundation in both short- and long-hurdle disciplines that has carried into her college career. The personal best of 1:06.46 in the college 400-metre hurdles during her freshman year, earning a top-45 regional ranking in NCAA Division II, suggests the long hurdles may be where she ultimately makes her biggest mark at the college level.
Her sprinting work contributes to the team’s relay infrastructure, and the 4×400-metre relay appearances at the NSIC Indoor Championships in both her freshman and sophomore years confirm that she is a reliable relay component at the conference championship level — an important distinction in Division II athletics, where relay points can make meaningful differences in team standings.
The UMD Context: A Program on the Rise
Burke competes within a UMD women’s track and field program that has been demonstrably improving under coach Brautigam. The 2025 outdoor season saw the Bulldogs host the NSIC Outdoor Championships at Malosky Stadium for the first time in years, with 60 qualified athletes competing. The 2026 indoor season brought a fourth-place team finish at the NSIC Indoor Championships — described in UMD’s own reporting as one of the most successful team performances in years.
The program’s depth across sprint events was evident in the 2025 outdoor season, when the women’s 4×100-metre relay team ran to a school record of 47.07 seconds — and the indoor 2026 season continued that sprint momentum. Burke operates within a sprint group that includes athletes who have been setting school records and earning All-Conference designations, which is both a competitive challenge and a developmental resource. Training alongside and racing against high-performing teammates accelerates improvement in measurable ways.
The NSIC, as a conference, provides a competitive level that bridges the gap between smaller DIII programs and the elite DI environment. NSIC outdoor championships bring together 14 women’s programs and 11 men’s programs, with the strongest conference member schools running times that hold up nationally in the Division II rankings. Placing in the top 45 in the DII Central Region in the 400-metre hurdles as a freshman, as Burke did, reflects the genuine competitive caliber of the NSIC environment.
Looking Ahead
As a sophomore entering what should be her most productive developmental season yet, Sevanna Burke has a clear path forward at UMD. With two years of college competition behind her, a foundation of NSIC relay experience at the championship level, personal bests established in both the short and long hurdles, and an academic record strong enough to earn All-Academic Team of Excellence honors, she is positioned well for the remainder of her Bulldog career.
The 400-metre hurdles appears particularly promising. Her 1:06.46 freshman outdoor best is a time that, with continued improvement, could put her in contention for NSIC individual scoring at the outdoor championships in future years. The event rewards athletes who develop tactically and technically over multiple seasons, and Burke’s background in the long hurdles from her high school days at Spooner gives her a foundation to build on.
The 2026 outdoor season — her sophomore outdoor campaign — is underway, and with it comes the opportunity to improve on her personal bests across the hurdles events and to continue contributing to relay squads that have been central to UMD’s team success. A small-town kid from Trego who qualified for the Wisconsin state track meet as a junior and went on to compete in NSIC conference championship relay finals as a college freshman and sophomore has already proven she belongs. The next chapters of her story are still being written at Malosky Stadium and across the NSIC circuit.
Career at a Glance
- Full Name: Sevanna Burke
- Hometown: Trego, Wisconsin
- High School: Spooner High School
- College: University of Minnesota Duluth (NCAA Division II, NSIC)
- Year: Sophomore (2025–26)
- Major: Marketing and Graphic Design
- Events: Sprints/Hurdles (60mH, 100mH, 400mH, 4×400 relay, 4xDMR relay)
Key Career Performances
- 400m Hurdles (outdoor PR): 1:06.46 — Meet of the UnSaintly, April 30, 2025 (Top 45, NCAA DII Central Region)
- 400m Hurdles: 1:07.87 — Wartburg Outdoor Select, April 4, 2025
- 100m Hurdles (outdoor): 16.02 — UMD Bulldog Open, April 26, 2025
- 400m (indoor): 1:00.90 — Ted Nelson Classic, February 2025
- 60m Hurdles (indoor): 9.40 — CSS Opener, December 14, 2024
- High School 300m Hurdles (state): 46.02 — 2023 WIAA Division 2 State Championships (8th place)
- High School 55m Hurdles: 9.29 — 2023 Packy Paquette Invitational (1st place)
Collegiate Honors
- NSIC All-Academic Team of Excellence — 2026 Winter Season (3.60+ GPA)
- NSIC Indoor Championship relay contributor (4×400, 4th place) — February 2026
- NSIC Indoor Championship relay contributor (4,000m relay/DMR, 3rd place) — February 2026
- NSIC Indoor Championship relay contributor (4×400, 4th place) — February/March 2025
- Top 45, NCAA DII Central Region, 400m Hurdles — Spring 2025
High School Highlights
- WIAA Division 2 State Meet qualifier — 300m Hurdles, 2023
- 8th place, WIAA Division 2 State Championships — 300m Hurdles (46.02), 2023
- 1st place, Packy Paquette Invitational — 55m Hurdles (9.29), 2023
- Multiple regional championships and qualifications in hurdle events
- Competed for Spooner High School, Spooner, Wisconsin
