Say and Brinson ready to take it all in at Nationals

You know that experience when you see a friend or family member you haven’t seen in years and the first thing they say is, “oh wow, you look so different!” but you feel the same you’ve always felt?

That’s Bobby Say reflecting on his time competing as an Eagle.

A fifth-year senior jumper who has spent his entire collegiate career at Eastern Washington, Say looks back at his younger self as though he’s looking at a different, yet familiar person.

“It’s five years of five, sometimes six days a week of constantly working to get better. It’s hard to notice huge improvement day to day,” he said. “But when I look back to freshman year, I’ve increased my triple jump by four feet and my long jump by almost three feet. Over the five-year span, we’ve made a huge jump, but over the course of that time, it all seemed super incremental.”

Those years of hard work culminated at just the right time as Say set a new career-best in the triple, hitting 15.84 meters (51’ 11.75”) at the NCAA West Regionals in Sacramento late last month, punching his ticket to the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Austin this week. He is just the 24th Eagle — male or female — to achieve that feat and the third male since 2010.

Getting to this point wasn’t always a certainty. In his final year, Say had to adjust to an entirely new coaching staff, including Jonina Brinson, Eastern’s new assistant coach focused on jumps and multi events.

“Anybody who says change is easy is lying, but it’s all about your mindset toward the whole thing and what you want to get out of it. I decided to buy in right from the beginning.”

Brinson echoed Say, adding, “The athletes had to adjust to a whole new staff and change is not what a lot of people like. They want consistency, the same thing, the same routine. So being a fifth-year senior and having a new coach come in, after she vividly told you that she didn't have any triple jumpers before, to trust in that program means a lot.”

Brinson was a highly-decorated student-athlete as a 10-time NAIA All-American at the University of Mobile (Ala.), winning two NAIA Championships in the long jump and two SSAC Women’s Track and Field Athletes of the Year honors while breaking 11 school records. She also competed at Bethune-Cookman University, winning a MEAC Championship in the long jump in 2018.

However, as she told Say when they first met, despite competing in the triple herself, she had never coached a triple jumper. During her tenure at Buena Vista University, Brinson didn’t have any student-athletes competing in the event.

“I didn't get to really test out my workouts until I got here,” she said. “I knew what I wanted to do with a triple jumper, I just couldn't test it. But the fact that (Say and the rest of the Eagle jumpers) were able and just willing to try it says something. A lot of my jump stuff isn't by the book.”

Under Brinson’s tutelage, Say performed well indoors, hitting his overall career mark at 15.96 meters (52’ 4.5”) in February and winning the Big Sky Championship later that month. In a scary moment, a knee injury in late April nearly derailed his chances during his final outdoor season.

“Not even a month ago, we were in Tucson (at the Desert Heat Classic) and I was taking some long jumps and my knee just blew up on me,” Say recalled. “I thought I was going to pull myself out or just stop the season there. I was kind of checked out mentally.”

Brinson pushed him to keep preparing and see how things felt after some rest.

“(I was able) to come back and jump on that pretty inflamed knee at Big Sky (Outdoor Championships) and then come back at regionals as well and qualify for nationals,” Say continued. “It makes it a whole lot better of an accomplishment for me personally knowing the adversity I had to face.”

Headed into the 2022-23 season, his outdoor career mark was 51’ 0.75” in the triple. Regardless of results in Austin, the Tahoma High (Maple Valley, Wash.) grad leaves Eastern having improved that mark by nearly a foot during his senior year alone.

“Ever since high school, I only wanted to jump farther than 50 feet,” Say reflected. “We’ve gone over 52 two or three times just this season, so I’ve exceeded all my expectations in that aspect. But it wouldn’t hurt to hit 53 feet, maybe get that all-time school record.”

Say will have one more chance at Vic White’s longstanding Eagle top mark of 52’ 8” (16.05 meters) set in 1980. He currently sits 4th on EWU’s all-time outdoor performance list, one spot behind Kurt Kraemer, who also boasts the program’s best NCAA finish in the triple jump, earning 4th in 2001.

For her part, the regularly-smiling Brinson said she is usually “nervous happy” as a coach, as opposed to just “happy” as a competitor. At nationals, both have the mindset to enjoy the moment and do what got them there.

“Coach Tuck (EWU Director of Track and Field Erin Tucker) said before regionals, that what it took to get your regionals is what it would take to get out. That ended up being true,” she remarked. “You'll get yourself in the moment with the environment (of the meet), but it's the same mindset as conference and regionals, to just trust what you’ve been doing, go out there and compete.” Tucker was selected to lead the Eagles in August of 2022 with an impressive resume that included experience competing at Florida and coaching at programs like Penn State and Kentucky.

“It is truly a once in a lifetime experience,” Say added.

An outstanding student who has received several academic honors during his career, he’ll have little time to reflect before utilizing his degree from Eastern in business administration. Say and the coaches are scheduled to return from Texas on the 11th and he starts a new job near his hometown on the 12th.

“If I can take it all in and be in the moment for the whole competition, that’s a win in my book. But coming in ranked 14th out of 24, that’s really close to top eight All-American, so obviously that’s the goal.

“Just a nice 16-meter jump.”

All will be revealed on Friday night in Texas. The men’s triple jump will begin at 8:10 p.m. CT / 6:10 p.m. PT in Austin, broadcast live on ESPN+.

Links: NCAA Championship Central — Men's Start Lists — Live Results