GORHAM — There’s always a crossroad in an athlete’s career.

For Jamie Ruginski, it came in his sophomore year at the University of Southern Maine. He had just finished ninth in the triple jump in the NCAA Division III national indoor track and field championships – 2 inches shy of achieving All-America status. He walked off the track while everyone else went to the podium.

Jamie Ruginski may have taken a winding road to the USM track team (a year at UMaine, 125 days snowboarding in California), but since enrolling at USM, he’s made the most of it. This weekend, in his final collegiate track meet, Ruginski will seek a second national triple jump title, to go with the two he’s won indoors. Photo courtesy of USM

“That right there was the moment that I decided I was going to work as hard as I possibly can to never, ever let that happen again,” said Ruginski, now a senior. “It was a very disappointing moment to make it all the way there and miss it by an inch or two. That’s when we went back to the drawing board.

“Ever since then it’s been training harder, lifting harder, eating right, just focusing on what needs to happen.”

Ruginski, 24, has never looked back. He’s in Canton, New York, this week, at St. Lawrence University for the NCAA Division III outdoor track and field championships Thursday through Saturday. And he has a bit of a target on his back.

Ruginski won last year’s NCAA Division III triple jump and is again seeded first in the event with a school record of 51 feet, 23/4 inches. He’s also won the last two indoor triple jump national championships.

“It’s pretty exciting,” said Ruginski. “It’s been an unbelievable experience so far, more than I could have ever asked. Honestly, my dream was to win one (championship). I won one, then kind of rolled from there.

“It would be great to win another. But no matter what happens, I think I’ve proved myself. I’ve done what I wanted to accomplish. I just want to enjoy one last track meet, the last meet of my collegiate career.”

Ruginski also will compete Thursday in the long jump (seeded fourth at a school-record 24 feet, 21/2 inches). The triple jump is Saturday.

That Ruginski has enjoyed such success is not entirely surprising. He is gifted athletically and excelled at Bonny Eagle High in Standish in soccer and track – in not only the jumps but the hurdles. His Bonny Eagle track coach, Greg Wilkinson, said, “He was just a kid who blossomed in high school, especially his last two years.”

Ruginski attended the University of Maine on a partial scholarship as a freshman. He did well, finishing second in the triple jump in the American East outdoor championships, and is still holds the Black Bears’ record in the outdoor long jump and is second in the triple jump.

“I loved it, great school, great program. I have to attribute everything I learned to them,” said Ruginski. “I improved 4 to 5 feet in one year, which for a jumper is a lot. But then I decided that I wanted to try something new.”

Why?

“Division I is hard,” said Ruginski. “It’s your job, that’s your life, that’s your focus, you have no time for yourself. You can’t go away on a weekend, you don’t get your birthday off, you don’t get much time off. For me, I like to do a lot of things and it was hard. I wanted to do more and I couldn’t.”

So he moved to Lake Tahoe, California, to snowboard. “I (snowboarded) for 125 days,” said Ruginski. “Then I wanted more. I wanted to try track again.”

He returned to Maine, got a job, saved money and a year later enrolled at USM, just three miles from his home.

“There were a lot of people who thought I would never come back,” said Ruginski. “There were times when I didn’t think I would. But I always thought there was more in me that I needed to discover from a track aspect. And I wanted to prove it.”

Wilkinson is not surprised that Ruginski has enjoyed such great success at USM. “He’s matured and he’s gotten more muscular,” said Wilkinson. “But with Jamie it just came natural. He’s always had the talent, you could see it. He would do anything you’d ask, but he loved the jumps.”

Ruginski said the jumps are simply fun. “Running and jumping in sand, you can’t get any more fun than that,” he said. “I’ve been playing in the sand since I was 2 and haven’t stopped.”

And, he added, “For a brief second you feel like you’re flying. That moment in time is unusual and not many people can experience it. I like it.”

The triple jump is more complicated because you have to get the skips and jumps in sync. And it pounds the body, each jump coming down on the runway and then pushing off again.

Ryan Harkleroad, the USM men’s coach, has seen Ruginski’s development up close. He was an assistant at UMaine when Ruginski was there.

“Physically he’s gifted, he’s big, he’s strong, he’s powerful,” said Harkleroad of the 6-foot-2, 195-pound Ruginski. “You have to start with that. He also has a bit of fearlessness that you need for the triple jump. You’ve got to be tough because it’s an event that beats up your body.

“I’ve been able to watch him for six years, grow up a bit. But he’s still the biggest kid I know. He has matured in terms of responsibilities and that’s one of the big differences we’ve seen this year. He’s focused more on being part of the team, working out and being in the weight room.”

Harkleroad said when Ruginski isn’t competing, he’s loudly cheering on his teammates.

Ruginski loves being part of this team. USM sent four other male athletes – the 1,600 relay team of Zach Miller, Kevin Desmond, Jeremy Collins and Dan Webb – to the nationals. Senior Peyton Dostie (seeded second in the 400 hurdles in 1:00.96) of the women’s team also will compete. Collins, a junior, is also from Bonny Eagle, as is Dostie.

Collins marvels at what Ruginski has accomplished: “He’s just a freak athlete. He can do any event he wants. He could be on our (relay team) if he wanted.”

What’s next for Ruginski? Getting his degree – a business management major, he will graduate next year – and maybe some more jumping. “I couldn’t imagine myself doing anything else,” he said.

He’d love to compete in the U.S. championships, maybe the Olympic trials.

“That would be my ultimate dream,” he said. “You never know, right?”

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