Published: December 05, 2008 10:48 am            

Warriors add prep runner

Rend Lake College

INA – Lewi Manirumva signed his national letter of intent on Thursday to run for Cross Country, and Track and Field Head Coach Brent McLain at Rend Lake College next fall.

Manirumva, 18, moved to the U.S. from Burundi, Africa four years ago. He is a senior at Washington High School in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. In the Class 4A State Championships this past fall, he ran a time of 15 minutes, 31 seconds on the 5k course to finish fourth among all other runners from the largest high schools in Iowa.

In order to graduate from high school in Cedar Rapids, he has resided for the past year with a sponsor family – retired Washington High teacher Pat Nielsen and Roger Stoakes, a retired employee of the U.S. Department of Agriculture – instead of moving with his parents and siblings to Phoenix. Burundi is located in central Africa near Tanzania.

Stoakes, Nielsen and Manirumva travelled to the college in Ina on Thursday to meet with McLain and sign the national letter of intent.

“We think Lewi has a tremendous opportunity in coming here,” Stoakes said. “We have great confidence that this is the right place for him.”

Manirumva will graduate high school in May and make the transition to RLC in the summer. The Warriors finished fourth in the National Junior College Athletic Association Division I Cross Country Championship this year. The individual champion was RLC freshman Steven Sambu.

        

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