College track and field at the D1 level is dominated by the same few teams every year. They out recruit the nation, and bring in all the 4 and 5 star recruits, leaving almost every other team to fight for the scraps left on the recruiting board. It’s why the Georgia Bulldogs gave us Matthew Boling and Elija Godwin at the same time, with the future collegiate record holder joining them on their 4x400 meter relay team. In fact, there are nearly 300 D1 men’s track and field teams alone, across 30 different conferences. But the only ones present at the NCAA championship meet for the most part are from the Big 12, Big Ten, ACC, and of course the SEC. When you combine that with the fact that the long jump and the triple jump don’t get much attention at the college level or beyond. I am almost 100 percent of positive that you have no idea who the best horizontal jumper in all of college this year actually is, or what school he competes for.

Salif Mane is that man. He long jumped 25 feet 8 and ¾ inches to win his conference this past weekend. Although that jump might get him into the NCAA indoor meet, it’s nothing compared to his triple jump of 54 feet 9 inches. That jump is tied for second in the entire nation. What makes this unusual is that Salif Mane competes for Fairleigh Dickinson University in the NEC Conference! It stands for the Northeast conference, and is actually a thing in D1.

The truth is that Salif Mane is one of the best track and field athletes in the entire nation, and has been for a while now. But he competes for a program that almost nobody knew existed, until they completed the biggest upset in college basketball history last season. The FDU Knights are the definition of an underdog in every sense of the word. Yet the reason he jumps for them, is simple. He was never under any circumstances supposed to be this good. So the big schools didn’t want him. In fact, even the smaller D1 schools in his home state likely weren’t all that interested in him either. But if he can keep this up, he can not only win an NCAA championship but prove to the entire world that recruitment rankings really don’t mean anything after you step foot on campus.

How good was Salif Mane in high school?

The story of Salif Mane because it simply hits too close to home. I knew about FDU before last year’s NCAA tournament. I ran D1 track in the Mid-Atlantic region against them years ago. The only sprinter they had back then who was scoring points in the conference transferred out to Hampton University. But that was before the transfer portal was even a thing. So the fact that Salif stayed his entire career at FDU is a very big deal, when you consider he could have left them and their program a few times by now.

At the high school level Salif would have rated as a 3 star recruit on SCArecruiting.com at the end of his junior year. Competing out of the Bronx, NY, where I used to live by the way, he made the state championship finals. That must be when FDU found him, because they are the type of school to sign 2 and 3 star recruits. But as a senior he became a high 4 star recruit triple jumping over 50 feet when all was said and done. That made him one of the top 10 in the nation for the event. But he didn’t back out of his commitment, and attended FDU which isn’t known for winning much of anything in D1 track, even in the NEC conference.

How good is Salif Mane in college? 

However, since the moment he got there, he validated his recruitment ranking while getting better the entire time. He got third in the long jump as a freshman in his first conference meet and won the triple jump as well. But since then, he has literally never lost a jumping competition in the Northeast conference. Through 4 years of competition Salif Mane is undefeated in the triple jump in conference, and basically undefeated in the long jump. In fact, he’s never lost a jumping competition he entered a the IC4A championships either (it’s basically track and field’s version of the NIT in basketball.) The only time he loses, is normally at the NCAA championship meet, and since 2022 he’s been only doing that in the final.

If you jump in Division 1 right now, then you probably know who Salif Mane actually is. The only reason we don’t know his name, is because he is a jumper, and not a sprinter. His long jump has been catching up to his triple this entire time, and now he has one more shot to win a national championship in Division 1, for Fairleigh Dickinson University. The only time national championships have ever been won by FDU are in women’s bowling, and that was way back in 2010.

The Bottom Line 

It is unclear what the future of Salif Mane’s career will look like, but by now the secret is out. He is one of the best jumpers in the entire nation, and has been since his senior year of high school. But he chose to go stay at a school who believed in him, back when he was just a 3 star level recruit. And now he has a chance to do the unthinkable, against all of the nation’s best athletes, from the most well-funded sports leagues disguised as college athletics. But the FDU Knights have already done the impossible, and all of America was watching. So when the NCAA championships go off next weekend, I highly recommend you pay attention to the jumps. Because Salif Mane has a pretty good shot at pulling off an upset again, all by himself.

LOOK GOOD, FEEL GOOD, RUN GOOD.

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