Nearly 40 years after receiving a degree in biochemistry from the University of Texas, Kirsten Wengler Burton received a phone message from her alma mater saying it had questions about her academic record.

Wondering what could have come up so long after she received her diploma, she called back the next day.

Wengler Burton was connected to Chris del Conte, Texas’ vice president and athletics director, who informed her of the real reason for the call: She was going to be inducted into the Texas Athletics Hall of Honor.

“I was really surprised,” said Wengler Burton, who lives in Wayzata. “I was taken aback and beyond honored.”

Her collegiate honor was a surprise. Her success was not.

Before she became Kirsten Wengler Burton, she was Kirsten Wengler, dominant Minnesota high school swimmer. She won eight individual state championships, and her school, Hopkins Lindbergh, won two state titles, in 1978 and 1979. Between her freshman and senior years, she never lost an individual race and the Flyers never lost a dual meet. She was the first to earn six letters in one sport in school history.

She was coached there by Elmer Luke, who is in the Hall of Fame of just about every school or association he touched. Luke died in 2015.

Wengler Burton acknowledges his contribution to her success.

“I don’t think we can underestimate the role of high school coaches,” she said. “They have a tremendous, important role. I really got lucky with coaches through my life. My high school coach was a special man. He helped guide me.”

Luke told the Minneapolis Tribune in 1978 that Wengler Burton needed little guidance. After she won two individual events and swam on a winning relay team for Lindbergh’s state championship team as a 5-3, 94-pound freshman, he said he needed only to make suggestions.

“All she was doing was winning,” he said.

“That’s the thing with her. Tell her a plan of swimming, or give her a time to swim in an event, and she’s usually going to do it. She swims with people and seems to do whatever it takes to win.”

She continued that approach for the next three years. Each season concluded with two individual state championships and a relay title, the best she could do because that was the most races competitors were allowed to enter at state then. The Flyers repeated as state champion in ’79, finished second in ’89 and took third in ’81.

She closed her high school career dramatically in the final event of the state meet — the 400-yard freestyle relay.

Swimming the anchor leg, she began two or three seconds behind. By the last turn she was even. When she was done, the Flyers had set a state record of 3 minutes, 36.97 seconds — 1.18 seconds ahead of second-place Burnsville.

After the meet, she asked a Tribune reporter, “Would you put something in for me? I want to thank my parents, my great coaches and Twinkies. I had four packs of Twinkies today. Two for breakfast and two in between swimming. They are a junk food, but they have a lot of sugar.”

Her eight individual state championships broke down this way: four in the 200 freestyle, three in the 500 freestyle and one in the 100 freestyle. Three of her relay state titles came in the 200 medley, the other in the 400 freestyle. She set five individual state meet records and was on two record-setting relay teams.

At the time of her induction into the Minnesota High School Swimming and Diving Hall of Fame in 2000, her state meet records in the 200 freestyle and 500 freestyle still stood.

All this came from a start at age 6. Wengler Burton grew up in Minnetonka, and her first coach was former Gophers swimmer Virg Luken, a Big Ten and NCAA champion who was a member of the 1964 U.S. Olympic team.

The college years

On Sept. 12, Wengler Burton was one of 10 individuals recognized in an induction ceremony at the LBJ Auditorium and Conference Center on the University of Texas campus in Austin. The next day, the class was introduced at halftime of the Longhorns’ football game against Texas-El Paso.

Wengler Burton was a 21-time All-American at Texas and swam on five relay teams that won NCAA titles. She helped the team win three consecutive NCAA championships and was captain as a senior.

While at Texas, she also swam for the United States. In 1983 she swam on two winning relay teams at both the Pan-Am and Pan-Pacific meets. At the 1985 World Games, she was a member of three winning relays.

“During the awards ceremony, I was asked what stood out most for me about my college career,” said Wengler Burton, who also has two years as an assistant coach for the Gophers on her résumé. “I said the answer to that question has changed over time. What stands out now is the relationships I had with my teammates and coaches, not the individual events. We were a family. A very strong unit.”