William Penn Finishes Fifth at League Championship
Cedar Rapids–Solid performances up and down the lineup helped the Statesmen men’s cross country team to a top-five placing at the Heart of America Athletic Conference Championship Saturday.
WPU place fifth out of 14 teams with 139 points, while Park took the title with 25 points. Mount Mercy was close behind with 36 points. With the win, Park also earned the Heart’s automatic bid to the NAIA National Championship, while Mount Mercy is looking to earn an at-large berth.
Caden Peters of Park paced the 142-runner field in the 8K race in a time of 24:37.1.
Andrew Miller (Jr., Le Claire, Iowa, Exercise Science) guided William Penn in 14th place at 25:12.6, earning himself honorable-mention all-Heart honors for the second time in his collegiate career.
Unfortunately, he did not automatically qualify for nationals. However, if Mount Mercy garners an at-large bid to nationals, that will open up more individual berths from the Heart, which would all Miller to qualify.
Brady McWhirter (Fr., Fairfield, Iowa, Sports Management) finished second for the Statesmen in 22nd place at 25:29.3, while Carson Springer (Jr., Grimes, Iowa, Business Management) also finished under 26 minutes at 25:57.8 to take 35th.
Sutton Shively (So., Bloomfield, Iowa, Mechanical Engineering) was two spots behind him in 37th at 26:05.9. Jordan Davis (Sr., Loomis, Calif., Political Science) rounded out the lineup in 45th at 26:18.6.
Gavin Huff (Jr., Mascoutah, Ill., Mechanical Engineering) headlined the remaining navy and gold harriers in 47th place at 26:21.6. Almost every WPU runner finished under 29 minutes.
“The guys put themselves in position to perform at their best today,” Graduate Assistant Coach Caleb Silver said. “You don’t see a lot of teams with every single athlete go under 30 minutes, and we almost had everybody break 29 minutes today. Our goal was to finish in the top five, and we knew it would be a challenge with two new teams joining the conference this year.”
“Andrew Miller gave himself a shot to punch a ticket to Tallahassee (the site of NAIA Nationals) and Brady was in position most of the race,” Silver added. “Carson also broke the 26-minute barrier, which was great to see. We do not take conference meets for granted because it is the last time the whole team gets to represent WPU together. We only lose two seniors after this year, so we are excited to bring the majority of this squad back next fall.”
