Shelia Burrell says there are two cornerstones behind her 16 years as San Diego State’s women’s track and field head coach.
“I always want my athletes building toward the end of the season,” Burrell said recently. “I don’t want them thinking they have to be their very best right out of the gate.
“And I don’t want to run them out of their careers while they are here at San Diego State. What they accomplish later is just as important to me as what they do here. You don’t burn them out in college.”
But what her athletes do on Montezuma Mesa also looms large. San Diego State has won seven Mountain West team championships under Burrell. She has coached four NCAA individual champions and 67 All-Americans.
And last weekend, Shaquena Foote (400 meters) and Jada Pierre (100-meter hurdles) upped Burrell’s total of individual Mountain West champions to 83.
“I really appreciate Coach Burrell’s approach,” said Foote, who looks to compete for the Jamaican National Team later this summer and then run in the Olympics. “I had a lot going left into the conference finals because I had only run the 400 twice this year before that.
“Coach looks at the bigger picture when it comes to the people on her team. What are they ready to do now? What are they going to be doing later? She builds us up to the end of the season.”
Last week’s Mountain West championships were just another step for the Aztecs. Foote and other top Aztecs will next head to next week’s NCAA West Preliminary Rounds in College Station, Tex.
The NCAA Championships start June 11 in Eugene, Ore.
Foote is among the favorites to reach the NCAA finals. But this year’s Mountain West results were not quite up to past Aztec standards. San Diego State finished fourth in the final team standings.
Missing from the Aztecs lineup while redshirting was second-team All-American heptahlete Jenna Fee Feyeraband and sprinter/jumper Hannah Waller.
Burrell expected her team would do well in the sprints and the pole vault. And the Aztecs, led by Foote, Pierre and a trio of pole vaulters, delivered.
Foote won the 400 meters in 52.12 seconds, finished third in the 200 meters with a time of 23.28 seconds and ran the anchor legs on both Aztec relay teams at the Mountain West championships. Freshman Laraigh Allen (Helix High School) was ninth in the 200 with a time of 24.19.
Pierre and Charlize James (San Diego High School) finished first and second, respectively, in the 100-meter hurdles. Pierre won with a time of 13.12, which was the sixth-fastest time in Aztecs history. James hit the tape at 13.29 seconds.
Lauren Harper (2:05.39) and Sophia Wolf (2:08.00) finished third and fourth, respectively, in the 800. Anna Mager finished fourth in the 400-meter hurdles in 58.64 seconds, the 10th-fastest time in Aztec history. The Aztecs also finished fourth in the 4×100 relay (:45.23) and sixth in the 4×400 relay (3:44.96).
In the pole vault, the Aztecs also placed third (Peyton Bedrosian, 13 feet, 2 ¼ inches), fourth (Sydney Ash, 13-2 ¼) and fifth (Jordan Leveque,12-10 ¼). Maya Gorman finished sixth in the long jump (19 feet, 2 ¾ inches).
Burrell believes Foote’s future is bright.
“Shaquena is a constant competitor with extreme natural talent,” said Burrell. “She’s growing as a person. And she has not reached the peak of her potential.”
Foote, 23, is currently ranked fifth in Jamaica in the 400, but sees her future in the 400-meter hurdles. Earlier this year, she won indoor All-American honors in both the 200 and 400.
“My aim is to go from the NCAA finals to the Jamaican trials at the end of June,” said Foote.
Among Burrell’s favorite athletes on the Aztec track team is Harper, who returned this year after suffering a stress fracture to her hip late in the 2023 season, which slowed her through all of 2024.
“She is fantastic,” Burrell said of Harper. “She is one of the most resilient athletes on the team. She made quite a commitment to coming back from an injury that would have ended the career for most runners. I’m immensely proud and impressed by Lauren.”
Every week, U-T contributor Bill Center highlights one San Diego college team that’s making strides on and off the field. To nominate a team, email [email protected].
