In four years of competition at Cal State Bakersfield, April Burton established herself as one of the greatest throwers in Roadrunner history. A six-time NCAA Division II National Champion and 13-time All-American, Burton won national titles in four different events, earned NCAA Division II Track and Field Athlete of the Year honors, and helped lead CSUB to the best national team finish in program history. More than two decades later, she still owns school records in the hammer throw and weight throw.

On Sept. 26, 2026, Burton will add another honor to that remarkable résumé when she is inducted into the CSUB Athletics Hall of Fame as a member of its second-ever class.

For someone who spent so much of her career collecting championships and breaking records, Burton’s reaction to the news was unusually simple.

“I was speechless,” she said. “It does something to my heart. It’s like a hug to my heart. I’ve been throwing for a very long time and to be recognized for that is awesome.”

But Burton’s path to the Hall of Fame was anything but simple.

She arrived at CSUB as a teenage mother, having already navigated a difficult childhood that included time in the foster care system. During her collegiate career she would balance classes, training, and raising a family, while also getting married, having another child, redshirting a season, and eventually returning to competition.

Looking back more than 20 years later, even Burton has trouble understanding how she managed it all.

That fire had been apparent long before Burton ever arrived at CSUB.

Tim Hartnett, her coach at Bakersfield High School, first met Burton before her freshman year. She had played basketball and competed as a sprinter, but Hartnett took one look at her size and strength and came up with another idea.

After basketball season, he told her, she was going to come out for track and throw the shot put and discus.

Her response was honest: “What’s that?”

Burton showed up that spring anyway. She entered a Bakersfield High throwing program that included athletes with years of experience, some of whom came from families of throwers and had worked with personal coaches. Burton was starting from scratch, starting with learning how to hold the implements in her hand.

It did not take long for Hartnett to see something special from Burton.

“I think it was maybe a week or two in when she actually connected on one and I thought, ‘Okay, we’re on our way,’” he said. “I think the other kids were going, ‘Wow, this girl is gonna be pretty good.’”

By the end of her first prep season, Burton was beating athletes who had been throwing for years.

When it came time to continue her career in college, Burton did not approach recruiting with an elaborate plan. She simply knew she wanted to keep throwing.

Burton recalled speaking with Cal State Bakersfield Head Coach Charlie Craig and listening as he explained the program.

“I didn’t understand the whole workings of looking for a specific college to go to,” Burton said. “All I knew was that I wanted to throw. When I stepped on campus I was like, ‘When do we start?’ I was ready to go!”

What made CSUB feel like home, however, was not the familiarity of remaining in Bakersfield. It was the people.

“They really made me feel welcome, even the other student-athletes,” Burton said. “It was like I was their long-lost cousin.”

She recounted driving to meets and the closeness she developed with teammates like Arnaldo Cueto, Chris Figures, Cecelia Barnes, and Cassandra Kirk. Burton described herself as naturally quiet and prone to getting lost in her own thoughts, but those relationships became some of her favorite parts of the experience.

“When we would take van rides to meets, we just clicked,” she said. “I just enjoyed that time. It was really special.”

Her relationships with her coaches became even more important.

Throws Coach Alan Collatz became a consistent presence in Burton’s life at a time when consistency carried a special meaning.

“Alan was somebody that was a constant for me,” Burton said. “I had been in the foster care system. That is not a constant, but Alan was someone who was always there. When I came to school, I knew if I had something going on I could go see him. Just putting eyes on him was a comfort for me.”

Craig, who was inducted into the inaugural CSUB Athletics Hall of Fame class in 2025, played a similar role for Burton.

“That’s papa bear,” she said with a laugh. “He taught me how to remain humble.”

For Burton, those relationships went well beyond athletics.

“My relationship with my coaches was more emotional for me than anything else,” she said, “and it kept me straight.”

Collatz saw a similar dynamic from the other side. Burton was gifted, but he understood that getting the best out of her required more than coaching technique.

“April needed a mentor that was understanding,” Collatz said. “Once we showed her that we really cared about her, not just her abilities, but who she was as a person, I think that made things great.”

Once Burton stepped into the throwing circle, however, the sweet and sensitive personality Collatz knew away from competition transformed.

“She’s mean, she’s nasty, and she’s a competitor,” he said. “She’s just super feisty and competition brings it out of her. She competes super hard. She loved to compete and she loved to beat people.”

That competitiveness helped make Burton unusual even among elite throwers. Rather than commit her time to a single event, she wanted to master everything she picked up.

“Some people would specialize and be really good in one event, but I didn’t want to be that way,” Burton said. “I wanted to be good in everything that I picked up.”

She learned to mentally visualize the technique of each event, a practice Hartnett had taught her, and eventually became a multi-time national champion in the discus, hammer throw, shot put, and weight throw.

Her work ethic matched her ambition and the pairing made for an elite mentality. Burton remembers a typical day beginning with classes before heading to the gym, already thinking about the work ahead of her.

“I treated practice like it was preparation for a meet,” she said. “That was my mindset. I don’t have time to be out here goofing around. I had kids! It was more like business for me, so I was really serious about it.”

Collatz remembers that seriousness vividly.

“I have never had anybody who enjoyed the weight room the way April did,” he said. “She was super aggressive, she never held back, she worked harder than any other female I ever coached in that weight room, there’s no doubt.”

One story from those training days still makes both coach and athlete laugh.

During a fall workout, Burton was squatting 315 pounds for sets of 10. After finishing her second set, she walked over to Collatz with some news she had apparently forgotten to mention.

She was three months pregnant.

“I about had a heart attack,” Collatz recalled. “I said, ‘No more lifting.’”

Burton redshirted that season before eventually returning to competition and picking up where she left off.

Her career included countless memorable throws, but Collatz points to the 2004 NCAA Division II Championships as one of the best examples of Burton as a competitor.

She entered the hammer throw ranked second nationally. Collatz remembers the throwing cage creating a difficult, narrow window that day, with competitors repeatedly hitting it and becoming frustrated.

Burton remained unfazed.

“April came in there, it didn’t bother her at all, and she blasted one right down the middle,” Collatz said.

She went on to win the national championship.

By 2005, Burton had become one of the best athletes in the country.

She won indoor national championships in both the shot put and weight throw, then added outdoor titles in the hammer throw and shot put. She was named the CCAA Female Athlete of the Year and NCAA Division II Track and Field Athlete of the Year.

Yet for all of her individual success, one of Burton’s proudest accomplishments came as part of a team.

At the 2005 NCAA Division II Outdoor Championships in Abilene, Texas, CSUB finished second in the country, the highest national finish in program history. All of the Roadrunners' points were scored by four throwers, with Burton leading the way.

“We only had five women who qualified for Nationals,” Burton said, “and four of us were throwers. For us to take home second place compared to all these other teams…this was Nationals; you don’t do that with only five people!”

Collatz remembers Burton scoring 28 points at that meet.

“We’re a small school and for us to go to Nationals and get second place, she was a huge part, she was the leader,” he said. “Nobody predicted that. I think that’s something that will live on forever.”

Some of Burton’s individual performances have lived on just as long.

At Pomona-Pitzer, she produced a hammer throw that remains one of the defining moments of her career. Burton remembers sitting in the truck before the event trying to remain calm, knowing she was competing against an elite athlete but also feeling that something special was coming.

“I knew I was going to kill it, kill it!” she said. “Everything just clicked and I just ‘BAH’ and let it out.”

The hammer traveled 207 feet.

“I was dancing and everyone was clapping,” Burton said. “It was pretty cool.”

The throw remains the best in CSUB history more than two decades later. Burton still remembers how effortless it felt.

“When I threw that 207, I knew something was up because it was just way too easy,” she said. “It’s a very technical sport; it just happens so fast, you just have to trust the process, go with it, hit that sweet spot, and let it rip.”

Today, Burton’s place in the CSUB record book remains steady, but the legacy she hopes to leave behind reaches beyond distances, championships, and awards. She wants future Roadrunners to understand what can happen when circumstance does not get the final say.

“I want them to believe that there’s nothing in the world that can stop them,” Burton said.

She recalled becoming pregnant in high school and knowing others might have assumed her athletic future was over. Burton decided there was only one way she wanted to respond.

“I know people are talking about me,” she said. “I know they have something to say, I know they say it’s over, and I wasn’t refusing to believe that. I’m not really a fighter; I know I can’t shut them up with my fists, so I’m gonna shut them up with my actions and I’m gonna go to work.”

That mentality followed Burton from Bakersfield High to CSUB, through motherhood and setbacks, into national championship throwing circles and eventually into the Athletics Hall of Fame. On Sept. 26, Burton will officially take her place among the greatest athletes in CSUB history.

Six national championships, 13 All-America honors and two school records make the case for Burton’s induction easy. But her career tells an even larger story, one built on resilience, relationships, and a willingness to keep working regardless of the circumstances around her.

More than two decades later, that fire Burton once struggled to explain still burns through the legacy she left behind.

Join us on Sept. 26 at Seven Oaks Country Club to celebrate the career and legacy of April Burton! Tickets for the CSUB Athletics Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony can be purchased at the link below.

~GoRunners.com~