Burke Deters

Finding success in one sport can be quite tough but doing two and finding success in both in the same sports season is even harder and pretty impressive. Axtell junior, Burke Deters has been able to do just that this fall sports season competing in cross country and being a key piece on the Eagles football team.

All throughout the cross country season Deters has finished in the Top four in every race but was still looking for that first win of the season and it came at a big time on Saturday has he posted a time of 17:06.79 to claim the Republic County 1A cross country Regional title and qualify for State. Burke beat out the second place finisher by a little over 14 seconds to win the Regional title.

That cross country performance came Saturday morning after playing on the football field Friday night a place in which Deters and his Eagle teammates picked up a 60-12 win over Blue Valley-Randolph and improved to 7-1 on the season, while also winning the District title to earn a playoff spot. Burke snagged two passes for 48 yards in the game and his first receiving touchdown of the season.

On the year the junior in cross country took second at the Washington County Invite, third at the races at Marysville, Nemaha Central, Onaga and Twin Valley League meet and fourth at both the Riley County and Centralia Invites. His fastest time on the season came at the TVL meet posting a time of 17:00.59.

While on the football field, Deters has made an impact on both sides of the ball catching 10 passes for 135 yards and a touchdown and rushing for 99 yards on 19 carries with three scores. On defense Burke is third on the team in tackles with 58 and has an interception on the season.

Deters will look to finish his cross country season strong on Saturday, October 31^st at the 1A State cross country meet in Wamego looking to improve upon his 14^th place at State last year, while helping the Eagles football team finish the regular season strong on Thursday against Linn and prepare for the playoffs.