Wausau East hurdler Enne Burton heading to UW-Milwaukee for track

WAUSAU - Enne Burton will get the opportunity to continue her track career at the collegiate level, a goal since her freshman year at Wausau East. 

The fact the Lumberjacks' hurdler will compete for what she calls her dream school makes it all that much better. 

Burton, who has qualified for the WIAA state track meet the past two years, signed a national letter of intent with the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee on Monday during a short ceremony in the East foyer. 

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"It feels real good that I am going to be able to continue my career and keep moving forward," Burton said. "This was the goal — to get to the collegiate point and it's also cool to tell my coaches (at East), 'Hey, we did it!.' "

Burton took an official visit to UW-Milwaukee at the end of October and said the campus, her future teammates and the track program made her feel that it was a perfect fit. She also admitted the fact that her older sister, Jordan, attends UW-Milwaukee influenced her decision. 

"I just felt the most at home (in Milwaukee)," said Burton, who also competes with the East girls cross-country team and the Wausau East/Wausau West Nordic ski team. 

Burton first competed in the hurdles as a fourth-grader and hasn't stopped. She qualified for state in the Division 1 100- and 300-meter hurdles in the state meet in June and also qualified for the 300 hurdles as a sophomore. She didn't advance from the state preliminaries in either year, which had her questioning if she would get the chance to compete at the Division I level in college. 

"I didn't have a very good state performance junior or sophomore years and I wasn't convinced I would go Division I, even though that was the goal," said Burton, who plans to be a pre-med major at UW-Milwaukee. "It wasn't until September when I got that first email from (UW-Milwaukee) that it was like, 'All right, it's happening!' I was really exploring more smaller division schools (to that point)."

East coach Tim Olson said Burton's ability and drive is a reason she will get to compete in college. 

"She is such a hard worker and has such a great attitude about things. She is just really positive all the time," Olson said. "She's got a lot of talent and when you put those three things together, you get a lot of success. She definitely has what it takes."

Burton hopes her run of success continues with her senior track season at East this spring. 

"My goal is to just improve by the same amount I have been each year, just dropping whole seconds and getting to be where I want to be at state," Burton said. "And I want to make finals and get on the podium at state.That would be a really good end."