Statesmen Rebound for Solid Showings at Doane

William Penn University Athletics

William Penn University Athletics

Crete, Neb.–Last week, the William Penn cross country teams had a disappointing effort, but they atoned for that with a much-improved day at the Doane Invitational Saturday.

The men were third out of seven teams with 92 points, while the women were sixth out of eight programs with 173 points. Host Doane swept the team crowns with 35 points on the men’s side and 30 in the women’s competition.

Danny Aldaba of Midland (Neb.) topped the men’s 8K race in a time of 26:50.17, and Marissa DeWispelare of Doane was the best female racer with a 5K time of 18:58.85.

Saromo Mugisha (Sr., Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Business Management) was WPU’s top male harrier, placing seventh out of 68 participants at 27:53.29. Yonas Desta (So., Salt Lake City, Utah, Biology) just finished outside the top ten in 11th at 28:21.39, while Ochaung Akway (Sr., St. Paul, Minn., Physical Education) was right behind him in 13th (28:39.18).

Brenice Ndayizeye (Jr., Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Computer Science) (35th, 30:44.54) nipped teammate Tyler Connelly (Fr., Trenton, Texas, Software Engineering) (36th, 30:44.83) by less than one second to wrap up the squad’s scoring.

Garrett Heckman (Fr., New Virginia, Iowa, Mechanical Engineering) highlighted the also-rans in 43rd (31:17.51), while Zach Johnson (Fr., Decatur, Ill., Mechanical Engineering) was only a few ticks behind the fellow freshman, finishing 46th at 31:29.47. Paul Walker (Fr., Orem, Utah, Biology) placed 67th as well in a time of 36:47.09.

“To be honest, our men surprised me a bit,” Coach Sean Gosewisch said. “The best part is that none of them are satisfied. We ran well across the board, but we are hungry for more and we have much to prove.”

With a 23rd-place finish (21:21.77), Addison Kepner (Jr., Cincinnati, Iowa, Biology) paced the women in the 72-person race.

Deja Lewis (So., Spring, Texas, Psychology) was 32nd (22:24.82), while Guadalupe Gonzalez (Fr., Houston, Texas, Exercise Science) was 39th (22:47.45). Lilly Walters (So., Boerne, Texas, Exercise Science), in 66th place at 25:35.90, and Cindy Walker (Jr., New Sharon, Iowa, Public Accounting), in 68th place at 26:22.33, rounded out the Statesmen scoring.

“Addison did very well for herself and the ladies showed great promised coming back from injury,” Gosewisch said.

“We certainly had a better crop of performances than we did at Grand View; most of the athletes ran significantly faster. We are still far from where we want to be, but today we raced together and competed hard. I was proud to watch them run as a unit.”

Next Up: William Penn takes a week off before returning to action, traveling to Davenport to compete in the St. Ambrose Invitational on Saturday, October 11.

Posted by on Sep 29 2014. Filed under College Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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