Boma Breaks Record at Talent-Rich Regular-Season Finale
Cedar Rapids–Jamal Boma (Sr., Des Moines, Iowa, Business Management and Physical Education) took advantage of a great competition field to make program history as the William Penn cross country teams competed at the NAIA Seminole Valley Stampede hosted by Mount Mercy Saturday.
The men were 19th out of 25 teams with 502 points, while #2 nationally-ranked St. Francis (Ill.) dominated for the title with 44 points.
The Statesmen women were 25th of 25 squads with 653 points; USF completed the school’s sweep as the 24th-ranked Fighting Saints were first with 55 points.
Boma once again took center stage for the navy and gold as he became the first runner in program history to eclipse the 25-minute mark in an 8K race. The senior placed third overall, but more importantly broke a 39-year-old school record with a time 24:51.
Ralph Longus owned the old record at 25:17 back in 1977.
Payton Busch (Sr., Centerville, Iowa, Secondary Education) was in the top 100 as well in the 244-person race, finishing 96th in a time of 27:37.
Garrett Heckman (Jr., New Virginia, Iowa, Mechanical Engineering) was next in 140th in a time of 28:44, while Zack Johnson (Jr., Decatur, Ill., Mechanical Engineering) crossed the line in a time of 29:13 for 158th place.
Terry Jackson (Fr., Houston, Alaska, Biology) was also part of the team scoring, ending up 182nd at 30:05, while Cameron Shade (Fr., Riverdale, Ga., Sociology) (190th, 30:23), George Ball (Fr., Cambridge, England, Physical Education) (203rd, 30:49), and David Williams (Fr., Victor, Iowa, Secondary Education) (219th, 32:19) competed for WPU as well.
Guadalupe Gonzalez (Jr., Houston, Texas, Exercise Science) was the first Statesmen female to complete the 5K course, placing 79th at 20:27; the time is the fastest of the season for William Penn.
Deja Lewis (Sr., Spring, Texas, Psychology) was less than a minute behind her in 129th place at 21:22, while Alexys Devlin (Jr., Davenport, Iowa, Physical Education) was 175th at 23:04. Bree’Anna Lee (Fr., Broken Arrow, Okla., Biology) (186th, 23:54) and Rachel Surbaugh (Fr., Knoxville, Iowa, Biology) (211th, 28:31) wrapped up WPU’s scoring.
Next Up: William Penn takes a week off before traveling to Kansas City, Mo. November 5 to compete in the Heart of America Athletic Conference Championships.