Boma Fourth, Gonzalez 23rd at Brissman/Lundeen
William Penn University Athletics
Rock Island, Ill.–Jamal Boma (Sr., Des Moines, Iowa, Business Management and Physical Education) produced another tremendous outing as he paced the Statesmen cross country teams at the Brissman/Lundeen Invitational hosted by Augustana Friday.
At a meet that was actually split into two divisions (Blue and Gold), William Penn competed in the lower Gold tier. The men finished 16th of 31 teams with 478 points, while Iowa Central CC took the title with 58 points. On the women’s side, the Statesmen were 21st of 26 squads with 502 points; ICCC finished the sweep with 71 points.
Shane Witters-Hicks (Unattached) topped the men’s 8K race, while Alec Bass of Dubuque was the top attached runner in second at 25:51.1. Agnes Mansaray of Iowa Central CC was the first to cross the line on the women’s 6K course in 22:46.3.
Boma pushed himself to the front of the thick pack of 292 competitors to place fourth overall (second among attached runners) in a time of 26:09.6. The senior’s time is the eighth-fastest in school history and the fastest since Travis Sauer finished in 26:04 in 2003.
Garrett Heckman (Jr., New Virginia, Iowa, Mechanical Engineering) also ended up in the top 100, taking 84th at 29:38.4. Zack Johnson (Jr., Decatur, Ill., Mechanical Engineering) narrowly missed the top 100 (103rd) and the half-hour mark (30:04.7) to be third for the navy and gold.
Cameron Shade (Fr., Riverdale, Ga., Sociology) (182nd, 32:09.9) and David Williams (Fr., Victor, Iowa, Secondary Education) (229th, 34:37.3) rounded out the WPU lineup.
Guadalupe Gonzalez (Jr., Houston, Texas, Exercise Science) was also impressive among the females, finishing 23rd (out of 226) in a time of 25:17.1. Her time is the seventh-best ever at WPU (since 2001) in the rarely-ran distance.
Deja Lewis (Sr., Spring, Texas, Psychology) joined her in the top 100, placing 92nd in 27:29.0. Alexys Devlin (Jr., Davenport, Iowa, Physical Education), in 148th at 29:25.8, and Bree’Anna Lee (Fr., Broken Arrow, Okla., Biology), in 153rd at 29:33.9, finished just seconds apart for third and fourth for William Penn.
Rachel Surbaugh (Fr., Knoxville, Iowa, Biology) (181st, 31:08.2) and Charlotte Hackett (So., Las Vegas, Nev., Psychology) (194th, 32:22.9) completed the team scoring.
Next Up: William Penn takes a week off before traveling to Bettendorf to compete in the St. Ambrose Invitational on October 8.
