College Update
We’ve gone digital
FUMA alum Peter Lomong helps lead Northern Arizona to title
But you can have it in print too!
By Bart Isley Peter Lomong didn’t just improve incrementally in a year at Northern Arizona. His improvement curve doesn’t look like the steady increase typical of a hard working athlete who adjusted to college running and has two years of experience under his belt. It looks like a hockey stick. Lomong put together strong prep career where he was a five-time All-Prep League cross country runner as well as the 800-meter state champion as a senior in addition to earning All-Scrimmage Play honors in cross country and track that year. He headed to Northern Arizona because it’s one of the country’s best cross country programs and training grounds as well as the alma mater of his brother, Olympian Lopez Lomong. After taking 19th as a freshman in the Big Sky Conference meet, in year two, he took 16th in the Big Sky Conference and didn’t make the Lumberjacks’ NCAA roster, though NAU went on to win the NCAA team title in spite of Lomong’s finish. This year though, he took the massive leap forward that his old high school coach who he and brother Alex lived with while at
Fork Union, Winston Brown, has actually been predicting for years. Lomong finished eighth in the national championships, helping vault the Lumberjacks to a second straight national team title while completing one of the most improved seasons in the country, jumping from a 16th in the conference to eighth in the entire nation. Northern Arizona won the meet with 74 points, beating the runner-up Portland by 53 points. “I am my own biggest competition and I ignored the negative inner voices today,” Lomong told the Northern Arizona website. “At the end of the race, all I was thinking was that I will not quit on my team. I went out there and just raced with no regrets.” That eighth place finish was good enough to earn an All-American nod as well. In the world of elite collegiate cross country, there isn’t much separating the very top from the mid-tier. The top 73 finishers all finished within a minute of each other. With everyone striving to improve, making the kind of leap Lomong did is an incredible feat, and since he’s just a junior, he’s got time to take things to an even higher level. ✖
BELOW » Former Blue Devil Peter Lomong finished eighth as an individual to lead Northern Arizona to back-to-back national championships. (NAU Sports Information)
HOW TO GET A PHYSICAL COPY OF SCRIMMAGE PLAY Step 1 :: Click here and head to the MagCloud version of the magazine. It’s going to look like this below:
Step 2 :: Click the Buy Print button next to the magazine and follow instructions to order Step 3 :: Wait patiently by your mailbox Step 4 :: When it arrives, take it out and read or stash away to your heart’s delight!
www.scrimmageplay.com ::
06