By MARK MOSCHETTI
Seattle Pacific Sports Information
 
SEATTLE – A hop. A step. And a jump.
 
Long before he ever knew what the triple jump was …
 
… David Njeri was a triple jumper.
 
It didn't happen during the summer at a nearby neighborhood track when nobody else was around. It didn't happen in junior high, or high school, or even in college when some decide to try it for the first time.
 
 

Nope. For the Seattle Pacific track and field standout, it happened growing up back home …
 
… in Nairobi, Kenya.
 
"There was this game we used to play where we would line up stick and bound in between them. Whoever jumped the farthest would put the stick at the end of it," he recalled with a big grin. "Basically, it felt a little like the triple – but I didn't know what it was called. We just called it hop-step-and-jump. It was just in the neighborhood, out in the dirt, in our bare feet."
 
Njeri has come a long way since then.
 
Instead of home being in Nairobi on the east coast of Africa, it's now in Seattle on the west coast of the United State – about 9,000 miles around the world.
 
Rather than jumping barefoot and landing in the dirt, he's jumping in specially designed shoes and landing in a sand pit.
 
No longer are sticks needed to mark how far he went. Now, it's either a measuring tape or even a laser beam.
 
"I never did sports. I ran here and there," Njeri said of those childhood days. "But was never like, 'Oh, let me go out and do this.' I was just out there running and playing soccer and doing a lot of running around, a lot of walking, a lot of grazing the goats.
 
"I was always an active kid, always outside doing something."
 
On Saturday, Njeri will be outside in Ellensburg, and most definitely will be doing something: Going for his outdoor third triple jump title at the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Championships.
 
The two-day meet at the Central Washington Recreation Sports Complex begins Friday, with field events at 10:00 a.m. and the first race on the track at 3:00 p.m. On Saturday, field events start again at 10:00 – the first of which happens to be the men's triple jump – and the first race is at 2:45 p.m.
 
It actually will be Njeri's first triple since April 13 at the Bryan Clay Invitational in Azusa, California. He tweaked a hamstring, and hasn't jumped in competition since then.
 
 

But he says he's ready to get back at it and add more distance to his current season best of 48 feet, 6 inches. Njeri (pronounced 'Jerry' – the 'N' is silent) is eyeing a third trip to the NCAA Division II nationals, and heading into this final weekend before entries are submitted and invitations are offered to the meet in Emporia, Kansas, he needs to get at least into the mid 49s.
 
With that in mind and after conversations with the SPU coaches, he elected to focus solely on the triple jump instead of trying to do that and also go for a second straight long jump title, as well.
 
"I feel like just coming back from an injury, it was the right thing that I needed to do," he said. "I haven't competed in a month. I'm trying to come back on fresh legs, and I feel like I have fresh legs so far. I'm just giving the triple everything I have.
 
"There's some soreness there, but I can jump," Njeri added. "I've been able to sprint pretty well, and I feel like my bouncing is back. I feel it's getting close to 100 percent, and I hope it's going to be on Saturday."
 
CULTURE SHOCK – FROM ACCENTS TO CHEESEBURGERS
Njeri arrived in the U.S. 10 years ago. His mother, Jane, had come in 2005 on a student visa while David stayed in Nairobi with his grandmother and the rest of his family. After Jane finished her college studies (she earned her master's in social work) and was able to take care of all the proper documentation, she brought David over to join her.
 
"It was huge; it was shocking – there was a lot of culture shock. I think that was the biggest thing for me," Njeri recalled, mentioning the size of the city, language and accents, traffic – and of course, food.
 
 

"The first time I had a cheeseburger, I think I threw up," he said, laughing. "Back home, we eat a lot of organic foods. Come here, and I'd never eaten cheese before. I was like, 'Oh, let's try this.' My mom said, 'I think you'll like a cheeseburger.' After that, I ended up loving cheeseburgers."
 
As for the language barrier, it really wasn't that much of a barrier at all, aside from different accents. English is one of the three languages Njeri speaks. (The others are Swahili, an east African language with multiple dialects, and Kikuyu, a native tribal language; the Kikuyu is Kenya's largest ethnic group.)
 
"I feel like sometimes, I'm still getting acclimated to the U.S.," Njeri said. "Now, I feel like I'm settled down to everything."
 
INTRODUCTION TO FRIENDS, AND TO TRACK, TOO
When Njeri arrived, it was already the second semester of the school year in Tacoma. He was an eighth-grader at the time, but because it was so late in the year, he was told he would have to re-do eighth grade the following academic year (2013-14).
 
He arrived at Tacoma's Wilson High School (now Silas High School) in the fall of 2014. At the time, track was not on his radar, and he was still trying to make friends.
 
But before long, he had found some friends – and found track, too.
 
"I met some people in the cafeteria. I was just by myself, hanging around," he said. "Some people from cross country and track came up and introduced themselves, and they were looking for some extra people for the team. So I joined the team."
 
Just as he was still getting acclimated to his new country, he also had to get acclimated to what it was like actually being on a track team.
 
"The first day, I came in jeans," he said, grinning again. "I didn't know what to expect. I was like, 'This is track team. Cool – let's go do this.'"
 
As with track teams everywhere, the athletes come to practice then group up according to their various specialties – sprints, distances, hurdles, jumps, throws.
 
"I was like, 'I'll try the hurdles – I might as well try something,'" Njeri said.
 
So during his freshman and sophomore years (2015 and 2016) he hurdled. Njeri become particularly proficient in the 300-meter intermediates. As a freshman, he placed seventh in the Narrows League finals. By the following spring, he had gotten fast enough to take third at league and eventually advance all the way to the state finals, taking seventh place.
 
Then during his junior year in 2017, Andrea Geubelle from nearby University Place, who had competed in the triple jump at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, joined the Wilson coaching staff. Hurdling was still Njeri's primary thing, both in the 300 intermediates and the 110 highs.
 
But one day, he went up to Geubelle and asked to try the triple jump "just for fun."
 
"Basically, we got on the runway, I did a couple of bounds, and she said, 'Oh – I think we need to start jumping, You've got a little bounciness on you.' That's how it started."
 
A WINNING BEGINNING IN THE TRIPLE
That 2017 season opened with a dual meet against Bethel High School. Njeri won the 110 hurdles, the 300 hurdles, and led off the winning 4x100 relay.
 
He also officially triple jumped for the first time, going 32 feet, 9 inches – far enough to win that, along with his track events.
 
 

"Being a hurdler, it kind of translates to being a triple jumper," Njeri said. "We just started training, and a triple jumper was made from there."
 
Njeri needed just five meets before logging his first 40-footer (40-8). He wound up competing in the triple 14 times that year, and won 10 of those meets, including the Pierce County League and West Central District titles. The district crown was won with what became his high school best of 48-2. He bagged a bronze at state, along with a bronze in the 110 hurdles.
 
By the end of his senior year, Njeri still hadn't signed anywhere for college. He was in North Carolina at the Junior Olympics with the Flying AJs club team when his coach started chatting with the coach from Wingate University, located in Wingate, N.C.
 
"He had coached a 51-footer; he was bringing in a 48-foot guy, then me and another high jump kid," Njeri said. "He was going to be bringing in three freshmen who were going to do good things with the program. That kind of sold it for me.
 
"The next week, I'm signing and moving to North Carolina."
 
ON SECOND THOUGHT … HOW ABOUT SPU?
Njeri competed both indoors and outdoors at Wingate, primarily in the long and triple jumps. At the South Atlantic Conference indoor championships in February 2019, he went 45-4¼ to place seventh in the triple, took 10^th in the long and ninth in the 60-meter hurdles. Then during the spring outdoor season, he went as far as 22-2½ in the long and 43-5¾ in the triple.
 
But during the winter, the Wingate head coach who had recruited Njeri left for another job. Several other athletes subsequently left, and Njeri decided that perhaps he should do likewise.
 
"I was getting acclimated to everything, then the coach ended up resigning. For me, it was, 'I'm so far from home and I don't know how this is going to go,'" Njeri said. "I would have stayed there if the coach hadn't left – he was a real good coach and we had bonded a little bit.
 
"So basically, I just moved back here and was looking for other schools around the area."
 
 

Before choosing Wingate, Njeri had toured SPU and spoken with head coach and program director Karl Lerum. Once he was back, he reached out.
 
"We recruited him out of high school, then he decided not to come and went to (Wingate). So when he came back to us, we were thrilled," Lerum said. "He has set the standard, certainly for our men's team, but also for the GNAC jumps – he has been the reigning king for some years."
 
Njeri got a full season of indoor competition during the winter of 2020, typically in the long jump, triple jump, and 60 hurdles. He made the podium in the triple at GNAC, finishing third at 47 feet, 8 inches.
 
But along came the coronavirus pandemic, and the 2020 spring outdoor season was shut down after the opening meet in March. The 2021 indoor season subsequently was canceled as well, so Njeri went more than a year between competitions, finally returning to action when a limited outdoor schedule began in April 2021.
 
"I was getting acclimated to everything in college, then Covid shut down everything. It was like having to restart again," Njeri said.
 
BACK TO ACTION IN A BIG WAY
Once he restarted, he just kept going. By the end of that April, he had his first collegiate 48-foot triple, going 48-0½ in Spokane. Just two weeks later, he won his first GNAC title in that event, going 48-7¼.
 

There was more to come. At the 2022 indoor season opener in Spokane, Njeri put his first 49-footer into the books. Several weeks later, he won the GNAC indoor triple jump title, then in May 2022 made it to the NCAA outdoor nationals, Twice that spring, he flirted with 50 feet: 49-9¾ then 49-10.

 

By the end of the 2023 academic year, Njeri owned the GNAC indoor and outdoor titles simultaneously.
 
"He is a student of the sport. He watches all track and come back all excited to talk about the big performances of the weekend from the world stage," Lerum said. "When kids become a student of their sport, it sure is a big step toward pursuing excellence. And he works hard, of course, like most people do.
 
"He has a lot of bounce and has just been a pleasure to work with."
 
Njeri not only brought his big jumps to the Falcons. He brought his big, engaging personality, as well.
 
"He's just a very positive guy in all regards of life," Lerum said. "That can't help but be a good thing for everyone who comes in contact with him."
 
'A HEART TO CARE FOR PEOPLE'
While pursuing excellence on the runway, Njeri has been pursuing it simultaneously in the classroom, as he will graduate with his degree in nursing. He already has the nursing certification exam on his schedule for July, and one of his classes this spring is specifically focused on preparing for that exam.
 
"In high school, I remember taking anatomy and physiology, and that class kind of got me wanting to get into the medical field," said Njeri, who carries a 3.30 grade-point average and is a two-time GNAC All-Academic honoree. "Growing up, I kind of have a heart to care for people. I want to do ER nursing if I can."

 

In the meantime, there's still some jumping to take care of in Ellensburg at the GNACS – and, if he can add enough extra distance, there'll be some more jumping to take care of in Emporia, Kansas on Memorial Day weekend at the NCAAs.
 
Ideally, that extra distance will take him to his long-sought goal of 50 feet, or for those with a metric mindset, 15.24 meters.
 
But as Njeri sees it, the best way to get there is not to dwell on it or stress out about it, but just to go jump and let his feet land where they may.
 
"Coming into outdoors, it was a little frustrating. It's my last season, and everything in my mind was 50, 50, 50," he said. "That kind of distracts you from competition sometimes. You're not there to perform, you're just there to chase some mark. … I just feel like this season has been (all about) 50 and not just go have fun like I usually do."
 
So come Saturday morning, he'll go for 50. He'll go to have some fun, too.
 
But then, when it comes to the triple, David Njeri has been having fun for many years – even back to the time in his Nairobi neighborhood …
 
… when he knew it simply as hop-step-and-jump.


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