Landrum High School running stars, Caleb Bouwkamp and Ben Boatwright, have earned college scholarships for their athletic abilities. On May 6, Bouwkamp and Boatwright inked their respective letters of intent.

Bouwkamp will attend Newberry College, while Boatwright is headed to Wofford College. Both are seniors for the Cardinals.

When did Bouwkamp begin thinking about the chance to perform in college?

“Senior year, for sure,” he announced. Now, “it’s very exciting.”

“Running, he said, “is very peaceful for me.”

At Newberry, he’ll study nursing, to become a registered nurse.

Middle school fans never had the chance to see Boatwright run, as he took that up later, and not with the intention of competing.

“I didn’t start running until the summer before my freshman year. I was a pretty serious tennis player.” As a tennis player, he found he needed to improve his cardio-vascular performance. His parents supported him in that endeavor, and “it all worked out.”

Running helped him with that, and more.

At Landrum, he ran cross-country and also track, each for four years. “My specialty was the two-mile,” he added, no surprise for a cross-country runner. However, Boatwright has also competed in the one-mile and the 4X800.

Reflecting on his time at Landrum, Boatwright noted, “I have only good things to say.” At Wofford, “I hope to find the same thing—good coaches and teachers.”

Boatwright, who plans to study pre-medicine and biology at Wofford, had not considered for some time the possibility of competing in college athletics.

“If you would have told me (in his freshman year at Landrum) I would be running in college, I would have told you that you were crazy,” Boatwright said.