PLNU Athletics

The Robert Keter story is one of those wonderful sagas that keep unfolding for the good. Much of it is due to characteristics he possesses and an unquenchable desire to achieve his potential..

Keter was recruited off his father’s Kenyan tea plantation in the late 1980s to be educated in Bulgaria by the Communist Regime. During the summer of 1989 he chanced to meet a Point Loma runner from Sweden by the name of JK Strandberg who gave him Coach Jim Crake’s phone number and address. In the fall of 1990, after many months and letters, Keter arrived on the Point Loma campus.

By the time he graduated in 1993, he had won two District Three NAIA Cross Country titles, two GSAC Cross Country titles and eight gold medals in track and field. At the national level, Keter was a four-time NAIA All-American, winning the bronze medal in the 800m three straight times (’91, ’92, ’93) and adding another bronze in the 1500m in 1993.

In 1992, Keter won the Meguiar Outstanding Male Athlete Award and was chosen by his teammates as the Most Inspirational Track and Field Athlete.

After graduation, Keter remained in San Diego and enrolled at National University. Over the next two years he earned his tuition through a variety of manual labor before obtaining an MBA in the fall of 1998. Shortly thereafter, he took a position with a young company in Boston called Dempsey Communications International. He spent most of 1999 in Tanzania and the Ivory Coast organizing the company business to promote cell phones in Africa.

The award for Outstanding Achievement by an Athlete was presented to Keter by Bob Brower.