Emmanuel Rotich grew up a very active kid in Kaptien Tea Estate, Kenya where he would run 5km to school each morning and 5km back home each evening.  In between, he’d run home for lunch and would then run back to school for afternoon classes.  This was just part of life for Emmanuel and he never really set out to be a competitive runner. 

It wasn’t until after primary school that he began to see running as something more than a mode of transportation, at which point he decided to start training more seriously joining the Kaplong Boys (form 3), competing in cross country and 3k.  During the 2013 and 2014 seasons he began to see real progress with his training and in 2015 he received his first real break with an offer of a scholarship at Tulane University.

During his freshman year at Tulane, Emmanuel set a school record in the 3,000m run at the Baylor Invitational with a winning time of 8:25.22.  A week later he ran a career best finishing 1^st in the 1,500m at the Southeastern Lions Invitational (3:53:23) whilst being named the LSWA Runner of the Year and the NCAA South Central Regional winner.  In his sophomore year, Emmanuel would repeat his win in the NCAA South Central Regionals breaking Tulane’s school record in the 10k, finishing in 29:58.9 and would not finish outside the top three in all but one meet throughout the season.  He made it to the NCAA finals finishing 3^rd in his heat and 9^th in the final and wrapped up his season winning the American Athletic Conference (AAC) cross country Runner of the Year.

In his senior year, Emmanuel won his second consecutive AAC cross country Runner of the Year title and again made it to NCAAs (Eugene, OR) but just missed out on qualification in the heats.