Four years ago, junior Gemikal Prude would never have believed that he would be a nationally-ranked high jumper.
Now, Prude is on track to compete at the highest level of competition in the event.
As the second person in his family to attend and stay in college, Prude’s first goal is to receive his diploma. This is his most important goal, but not his only goal for the future.
“My goal is to be the best high jumper in the nation,” Prude said.
Most athletes grow up playing their college sport, but Prude’s story is very different. He would never have considered track if it weren’t for his high school basketball coach.
“My original thought was, ‘I’m going play basketball in college.’ However, my high school basketball coach decided to start conditioning earlier in the spring of my junior year to prepare us for senior year,” Prude said. “To get out of the conditioning, the players and coach decided that we would do track.”
Prude’s track and field career began just four short years ago during his junior year of high school.
“At first, I ran the 100 and the 4×1. My best friend was a high-jumper. It was technique day, and everyone was telling me to try it,” Prude said. “My coach told me he’d give me a steak dinner if I did it, so of course I did.”
Prude said that, two days later, his coach put him in the high jump, and the rest is history.
As of Feb. 18, Prude is in a five-way tie for eighth in the nation in the high jump. To achieve that record, he jumped 7’2.5″ at this month’s TSU Invitational.
“Going into that meet, I just wanted to beat my personal record. When I ended up jumping 7’2.5”, I just couldn’t believe what had happened,” Prude said. “It was nothing more than God.”
Even after the jump when he was ranked fifth in the nation, Prude couldn’t believe all that had happened to him.
“When I came back to school after the meet, I was eating pizza with my teammates,” Prude said. “That’s when they told me that I was fifth in the nation. It really didn’t sink in till the next day. It’s truly a blessing from God.”
Just days before his historic jump, Prude made another historic commitment by making the decision to be baptized.
“The past two years, I’ve made it my mission to become more like Jesus Christ through everything I do,” Prude said. “Being baptized was the best thing that happened to me that week.”
Photo courtesy of Lipscomb Athletics.