Kwaku Boah did not start his athletic career tossing a shot put or throwing a hammer. But now he has made a habit of it.

A Syracuse senior, Boah did not begin competing in the field until his senior year of high school. Before that, he was a county champion in football and an all-county wrestler for Baldwin (N.Y.) Senior High School.

But throwing didn’t come with much difficulty for Boah. He broke a 23-year-old shot put record at Baldwin during his lone year on the team.

Four years later, Boah is still breaking records. Now he’s doing it for the Orange, and doing it with the all-business attitude the team has come to expect of him. Boah topped the SU indoor weight throw record set by three-time Olympian Anthony Washington during the New Balance Collegiate Invitational on Feb. 5.

Despite the accomplishment, Boah isn’t hung up on the record.

‘I made a big deal about it for a little bit, but I really want to make nationals,’ Boah said. ‘If I can’t make nationals, I almost feel like it’s a wasted year. Like I came in with a goal and missed it.’

It is hard to imagine that after four years of throwing, Boah is on the verge of a national championship appearance. But the senior is no stranger to athletic success. He’s been expecting this since before the season began.

After a season as a linebacker on Syracuse’s football team and an injury-plagued junior year, Boah is finally putting everything together for a breakout senior campaign.

‘In our sport, unless you’re an incredible, exceptional athlete, you have to do this full time, just like you have to do football full time,’ SU head coach Chris Fox said. ‘It’s hard to do both.’

But Boah’s football career had its benefits. His ability to excel in multiple sports at the Division I level displays his exceptional talent. Now that he is a one-sport athlete, he’s setting records, and his previous athletic endeavors have helped make that possible.

‘The more sports you play when you are growing up, the more athletic you become, and you need to be athletic in throwing,’ said Boah’s personal coach, Dan Pribula. ‘He was a multisport athlete in high school, and it enabled him to become a better athlete. He was a defensive lineman in football, in which you need to be explosive of the line. That correlates to the throwing events. You need to be explosive from the front of the ring.’

Before he can focus on nationals, Boah first must look ahead to the Big East Indoor Championship on Feb. 19-20. After a couple of excellent performances over the past month, he had the last week off before this weekend’s Big East championship.

‘My body’s fresh,’ Boah said. ‘When the Big East comes, it’s time to buckle down with the team and try to win the Big East.’

For Boah though, ‘team’ is an interesting concept. While he is part of SU’s track and field team, he is the lone male thrower who has competed in meets this season.

Without the usual concept of ‘team,’ the motivation is different.

‘It is tough for Kwaku, he is training by himself almost all of the time.’ Pribula said. ‘So his self-motivation always needs to be high. If Kwaku is feeling sluggish, he doesn’t have a teammate to help get him motivated, he needs to find it within himself, and that can be very difficult for anyone.’

But Boah hasn’t had any trouble motivating himself thus far this season. Boah was aware of the record since his first day with the program, and benchmarks like these motivate him. And that’s not even counting the motivation brought by top competition like the one he faced in the New Balance Collegiate Invitational two weekends ago and will face in the Big East championship and nationals.

‘I rose to the occasion a little bit,’ Boah said. ‘But there’s still room for improvement.’

dbwilson@syr.edu