WINONA LAKE - The stories that can be told about James Kennedy.

Around Grace College, they've become almost legendary. This 18-year-old Kenyan has stormed onto the national cross country scene with mind-boggling results and a No. 2 ranking in the Great Lakes Region.

Take the Indiana Intercollegiate Championships. Kennedy beat his best time ever by running eight kilometers in 23:38, the second-best time among NAIA runners. That averages out to better than 4-1/2 minutes a mile for five miles.

He's actually better at the 1,500 in track than in cross country.

There's the stories of how Kennedy has talked to his friends and has five other Kenyans interested in coming to Grace as soon as this winter, four of which may be faster than him.

There's the story of how Kennedy chose Grace because he was afraid of the fast-paced American style and wanted to go to a small school in a small town.

But the most amazing tale of all, completely true, is his adventure to the United States back in September.

Head cross country and track coach Kirk Heng tells the story that mystifies everyone that hears it. Forget about how Kennedy heard about Grace all the way in Kenya. That's not important for this story.

The first step to get Kennedy to Warsaw was getting a student visa. That became a problem in itself.

"That was the tough part," Heng said. "We got all the paper work and got it sent back and forth through the fax machine. We finally got everything and, lo and behold, the embassy in Nairobi gets blown up."

Well, all of Kennedy's paperwork was in the Nairobi embassy and was lost. Because of the uprising in Kenya, Kennedy couldn't get anything processed. Heng contacted senators, congressmen and embassies from 14 different countries trying to find a way to get Kennedy to America.

"We had him all set to go to Rome," Heng said. "Then, all the flights started getting cancelled out of the country. He was put on a wait list and just couldn't get a flight out."

Kennedy finally got an open seat on a plane to Switzerland. When he landed, the city didn't have an embassy, so he had to take a train to Berne to get his visa. While this was going on, Heng had called ahead to the embassy to fax any paper work and get any information that might be needed. Keep in mind that because of the time difference, he was doing this in the wee hours of the morning.

"I got this lady in Switzerland and she said, 'I'm sorry. I can't help you. The best way to get his visa is in his own country.'"

Of course, Heng explained the situation, but the woman wouldn't budge.

"She said, 'Sir, I'm just telling you that there's no way we can process that here,'" Heng said.

Heng, of course, knew that Kennedy would be calling shortly so that they could decide the next course of action. So he waited and waited and waited.

Kennedy did call - seven hours later. He surprised Heng by telling him that he was set to fly to Atlanta and when the plane would be landing.

"I asked him how he got his visa and he said, 'At the embassy,'" Heng said. "I asked him how and he said, 'They were very nice.' So, who knows what happened. We were praying about it and somehow that lady had a change of heart and got him through."

While he was in Berne, he had to stay overnight. However, Kennedy met someone who was from his home country of Kenya who let him stay at his house for the night so he wouldn't have to stay at the train station.

While he was on the phone with Heng though, someone stole one of his pieces of luggage full of clothing. So, when he did eventually get to the United States, he basically had only his clothes that he was wearing.

Eventually, Kennedy got to Atlanta and got on a plane to Indianapolis. Kennedy was supposed to call Heng when he got to Atlanta so that he would know when to pick Kennedy up from Indianapolis. That call never came and Heng frantically called the airport trying to find him.

About 10 p.m., Heng got a phone call from Kennedy. Kennedy informed him that he was at the student grille on campus.

"Somebody from England on the flight from Atlanta to Indianapolis who worked for Biomet brought him to Warsaw," Heng said. "So, God's hand was with this guy the whole time just getting him here."

Add in the fact that Kennedy had to scrounge up the money for the flights and it makes for an amazing story.

"He found people in his village who gave him money, plus he mortgaged five acres of land that he owned," Heng said. "He still has to come up with $350 by Dec. 15 or else he loses the land. So we're trying to help him out with that."

So Kennedy works two hours in the dining commons in the afternoons and sends all of it home to try to come up with the money to keep the land.

Of course, there was still the problem of money for medical and dental insurance, not to mention clothing, since all of his was stolen in Switzerland. Plus, he was a week late for school because of the delays in getting a plane out of Kenya. That worsened a problem that Kennedy already had.

"He translates from English to British English to Swahili when he reads," Heng said. "Of course, with college level courses, it takes a lot of time. There are deadlines and he's not used to having deadlines. He's been out of high school for a couple of years, so getting back into studies has been very difficult."

He was also scheduled into some classes that Heng said were just too difficult for him coming into his first year. So he had to be switched out of those which dropped Kennedy even further behind. However, even his schooling has fallen into place.

"In every class, he's got either a cross country or a track member in there," Heng said. "They sit down and study with him and walk him through it. He's got to read the entire New Testament this semester so the kids will sit there and read to him on the van so that we can get him through."

Despite the struggles, Heng says that Kennedy is actually quite smart.

"He's very bright," Heng says. "Once he learns something, it's there. He's got it."

Then, there's his cross country.

Kennedy's strength in the long distance sport comes from his immense pain threshold.

"He runs through injuries," Heng said. "For him, when athletes complain about injuries, he says, 'Why are you complaining? You need to run through it. There's only one injury you don't run through and that's a knee injury. Everything else makes you tougher.'"

Kennedy is in the midst of having major dental work done. He has wisdom teeth pushing their way in and has teeth pushing into cavities. However, he runs through that pain daily. At a meet earlier this year, he had a toenail fall off just before the meet began. He taped it on and ran. He's run through pulled back muscles, hamstring injuries and blisters.

He likes to train three times a day. Because of studies and work, he only gets to train twice, once at 5 a.m. and then once during practice. His 5 a.m. routine consists of running 10-15 kilometers. That's before his actual practice.

His reasoning for pushing himself so hard is quite simple, but is backward from most Americans' ways of thinking.

"He loves to race because he thinks it's the easiest practice of the whole week," Heng said. "He says, 'I've put the preparation in, this is the easy part now.' Everyone else is dying during the race, but this is the easy part for him. It's just a totally different philosophy on how to attack things."

That type of stuff rubs off onto his teammates. Since Kennedy has come to Grace, many of the runners have cut as much as five minutes off their best times. None are where Kennedy is, but all are improving.

"We have injuries on this team and people are trying to run through them," Heng said. "In the past, I don't know that they would have. When he showed up, there was this new level of expectation."

Kennedy also gives his teammates confidence. He seems to know what to say to each member of the team.

"He tells each one of them that they can all be a good runner if they want to put in the time," Heng said. "If you want to train as hard, then you can be as good."

He helps out his coach too.

"I told coach Kessler (the men's basketball coach) coming in, 'What if I ruin him?'", Heng said. "James has been reconfirming and has told the team over and over again that the training here is as good as his training in Kenya. He constantly tells the guys that."

Kennedy has aspirations of running in the Olympics. It won't be in cross country but it could come in the 1500. And Heng may just go with him.

"James is always giving me a hard time because he says, 'Coach, you must learn Swahili. You're my coach. We must go back for nationals to qualify for the Olympics.' You think about that and here is an athlete who has a goal of being in the Olympics. You have the opportunity for this kid to represent his country in Australia in the year 2000 or maybe it's the year 2004 before he qualifies. You think, 'Do I really have the qualifications to coach an athlete at that level?'"

That's why Heng has been talking to coaches and reading everything he can get his hands on about running. Because of that fear of ruining him.

But even coach Kessler can see that Heng is doing something right with the cross country team. When Kennedy ran his fastest time ever at the Indiana Intercollegiate meet, Kessler answered Heng's question.

"Well you didn't ruin him," Kessler said. "He just ran faster than he did in Kenya."

Grace College will compete in the Mid-Central Conference Tournament Saturday in Marian. If Kennedy finishes in the top five, which is almost a sure bet, he will move on to the NAIA National Championships. [[In-content Ad]]