Susan Ejore on path from Kenya to NYC to Oregon

By Brian Towey for DyeStat

For sleepy-eyed commuters in a New York City subway car, it’s a familiar vision: the ads for Monroe College, an ever-expanding, four-year college in the north of the city, in the Bronx.

The ads tout the school’s academic programs, diversity and convenience: Monroe, which typically grants its students Associates' degrees, now has campuses all over the city, even to the north in Westchester County.

But for the track-savvy, this urban commuter school is carrying a new, unlikely banner: distance-running power.

Susan Ejore arrived in New York from a village in Kenya.

A demure and petite 5-foot-1 sophomore, Ejore is taciturn in person and a friendly, engaging presence among her teammates. She is also one of America’s top emerging distance-runners, with NJCAA titles ranging from the 1,000 meters to the mile and robust cross country chops.

Ejore’s journey has brought attention to Monroe College and its growing cadre of international track and field athletes. From Kenya to South Africa, they are running fast and they are calling New York home.

“For me, I was nervous,” Ejore said. “I came from a village. The closest city to me was Nairobi.”

Ejore came from a village in Kenya’s Rift Valley, an area renowned for producing great runners. People in her village live off of small-scale farming of corn and beans.

In 2014, while a student on an academic scholarship at St. Gabriel’s Mission School in Nakuru, she began to run. She had heard that running was a way to get an athletic scholarship to an American university.

“I started running not as a talent, but to get a scholarship,” Ejore said. “(Then) I realized: I have a talent, actually.”

In 2015, Curtis Pittman, who used to coach the cross country and track and field teams at Howard University, discovered Ejore. He connected her to high-altitude training camps where top runners from Ejore’s area trained.

“In Kenya I would go to training camps,” Ejore said. “I would go home for once a month and then go to the camp for one month. I had to pay money (to train) and when I couldn’t get money, I had to go back home until my parents could earn the money.”

The first time the staff at Monroe College saw Ejore was on a video clip sent by Pittman, with her running a 1,500-meter time trial by herself.

“I remember it like yesterday,” Monroe College cross country coach Shirvon Greene said. “I called (Monroe head track and field coach) Lesleigh Hogg to ask him to view the video to see if I was seeing double. We had our stop watches.

“What really impressed me was the (effortless) strength and to run a time (4:36) like that by yourself.”

Ejore arrived at Monroe in August of 2015. She recalls stepping outside of John F. Kennedy Airport on that day to face the powerful New York humidity, which contrasted starkly with the cool climate of her village.

“When I came here, it was hot,” Ejore said. “I couldn’t even breathe.”

But Ejore adapted. And chief among the reasons she was able to acclimate was Nokuthula “Nikki” Dlamini, her roommate from South Africa.

“I made South African friends,” Ejore said. “We helped each other to adapt.

“At least I had someone to talk to, someone to understand me. We grew together. We adapted together.”

Added Dlamini: “We went through stuff together. It was quite easy. You had someone to talk to who you were comfortable with.”

Greene recalled Ejore’s first workout in Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, a leafy oasis beneath the elevated No. 1/9 subway trains.

“It was a 90-minute easy run at Van Cortlandt Park,” Greene said. “She kept up with the boys for 80 percent of the run.

“Those guys are very competitive. She stuck with them for most of the way.”

Ejore placed third at the 2015 NJCAA Division I Women’s Cross Country Championship in 17:56.60, with Dlamini taking fifth in 18:11.39. In the process, she developed a rivalry with another great harrier, two-time NJCAA champion Leanne Pompeani, an Australian from Iowa Central Community College.

“She’s really good at long distance and cross country,” Ejore said. “But I always get her in the 1,500 and the mile.”

Ejore followed her cross country season with NJCAA indoor championships in the mile, 1,000 meters and distance medley relay, in addition to outdoor championships in the 1,500 and 4x800 relay, plus a second-place finish in the 800.

In the summer following her freshman year, Ejore returned to Kenya to reconnect with family and friends.

“Normally, after our season, our guys go back over (to their homeland) to spend time with their families,” Greene said. “That’s very important. Track and field is a mental sport.”

When Ejore returned from Kenya for her sophomore year, a sharpness was evident.

“When she came back she was more at ease,” Greene said. “More motivated.”

During the fall cross country season, Greene contacted the University of Oregon – one of the top Division I cross country and track and field programs in America – to gauge interest in Ejore.

“They didn’t know anything about her until I reached out to them,” Greene said. “I talked to them in September or October, before the regional championships.”

The Oregon staff scouted Ejore in the fall and she visited the school’s campus. Immediately, there were echoes of home.

“It’s close to the weather back home, except it rains a lot,” Ejore said. “I liked the training program. The weather, too.”

She met with Edward Cheserek, Oregon’s three-time NCAA Division I cross country champion. He, too, had come from humble beginnings, arriving in New Jersey in 2010 from a shepherding village in the Rift Valley.

“The first time I saw him was at the Millrose Games,” Ejore said.

Added Dlamini: “He’s so cool, so humble.”

Ejore signed a national letter of intent with Oregon this fall. The connection with Cheserek was a major factor in her decision, according to Greene.

“We are really excited about Susan joining us next year,” Oregon assistant coach Maurica Powell said. “She’s an incredible athlete with huge upside. We’re just beginning to see her potential, as she’s only been training for a year or two. Susan will help us right away, both in cross country as well as in track.”

Oregon, including Cheserek and other future teammates and coaches, are in New York this weekend for the Columbia East-West Challenge meet at The Armory.

Ejore is one of a growing group of African runners at the metropolitan New York school. Monroe counts four athletes on its men’s and women’s track and field roster: one male and one female from Kenya, and one each from South Africa.

“Here you need public transportation to find a destination (to run),” said James Majenge, a freshman distance runner from Secunda, South Africa.

“Back home, if you wanted to run, you go out to your backyard and find an open space.”

The experience presents unique challenges for the athletes, chief among them is the adjustment to the food.

“The fruit doesn’t taste real,” said Dlamini, who will run for Texas Tech in the fall.

“(Also) the language. Here, there are people from Jamaica. It was hard for us to understand them because they speak so fast.”

However, among Monroe’s athletes, camaraderie is evident. And the athletes universally rave about the support the college provides them.

“It’s a very supportive school,” said Vincent Kibunja, a middle distance runner who attended St. Gabriel’s Mission School in Nakuru with Ejore and followed her to Monroe.

“With education and athletics, they really support you.”

Greene points to school president Marc Jerome as one of the people who has helped create a nurturing environment for international students at Monroe.

“Especially for urban and international students, I believe in the value of athletics,” said Jerome, who was a runner at Tufts College and still trains himself.

“(I believe it helps in) building community and in helping them graduate. I still define myself as a varsity athlete and a runner because of my (track and field) experience at Tufts.”

Ejore’s teammates laud her for her kindness. She will major in human physiology at Oregon in the fall, a stepping stone toward becoming a nurse.

“My first goal is getting my degree and running as a professional,” Ejore said. “I want to be in the 2020 Olympics.”

Kibunja sees the girl who has gained notoriety in America and recognizes the same person he knew in Nakuru.

“She’s going to be an Olympian,” Kibunja said. “Once she adjusts to the atmosphere, she’ll be much better. In my secondary school, she was so nice to everyone. She was so humble. That’s how she is here.”