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Y! MyWebKenyan runner finds a spot on Wright State team
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
FAIRBORN — In Kenya, "When you are a kid, you start running very young," Isaiah Kessio said.
Kessio ran, and decided he wanted to go to school in the United States.
"The school system is not so good in Kenya," Kessio said. "My sister had already come to the United States, and my brother. My sister looked for a place for me and gave me options. This looked like the best option."
Kessio runs on the Wright State cross country team, and as a sophomore has posted the two best times of the season for the Raiders. In 5K races, he has run 16 minutes, 11 seconds and 16:15. His coach says he has the ability to do even better.
"The door is wide open for him," WSU coach Sylvia Kamp said. "He's certainly got the talent."
Kessio and his cousin, Nelly Cheruiyot on the women's team, are the only two Raiders runners from outside of Ohio.
Kamp is thrilled to have them — Kessio is a sophomore, Cheruiyot a freshman who has yet to run because of an injury — but claims they found her before she found them.
"My sister (Ruth Limo) ran at Cincinnati," Kessio said. "And my brother (Soloman Kessio) is at Cincinnati now (as a junior)."
Kamp, in her second year as WSU coach, said contact with WSU had been made before she arrived.
"Cincinnati didn't have any scholarship money left," Kamp said. "I did some research on Isaiah. His sister and brother were both good students and runners. I thought, 'There's two for two, why not three for three?' "
Isaiah did have a small problem last year. He had suffered a left leg injury from a machete accident while clearing weeds near his home in Kenya a couple years ago. He was treated and thought he was fine, but last year discovered that there was a stress fracture in his leg that had to heal further.
He says he thinks he can lower his time in the 5K to about 14:50. This Saturday, Sept. 20, Kessio and the Raiders will run in the Friendship Invitational at Cedarville, an 8K event.
"It's our first 8K race of the year," Kamp said. "And it will be the first race for Jake Bradosky, our No. 2 guy. He'll be able to push Isaiah."
Bradosky is a senior from Centerville who competed at Cal Lutheran the past two years.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2157 or mkatz@DaytonDailyNews.com.
