Kemei blasted onto the cross country and track scene in 1974 at WT for Coach Bob Kitchens as a "highly touted" freshman from Eldoret, Kenya. In a 1976 article in The Prairie the soft-spoken Kenyan with a British accent, who initially was known as Joseph Tiony, said he went back to his actual name of Kemei after using his grandfather's name "for fun."
He had never run cross-country before and proceeded to break meet and school records practically every time he ran. Kemei set five records in the Colorado State Invitational in October 1974 - breaking the course record by 28 seconds and setting WT records in the two, three, four, and five miles. He was All-Missouri Valley Conference in cross-country from 1974-1977.
He became WT's first track All-American in February 1976, when he finished second in the 1,000 meters with a school record of 2:11.2 at the U.S. Track & Field Federation Championships in Oklahoma City, Okla.
Kemei graduated from WT in 1979 with a Bachelor of Science degree in plant science. He also holds a Master of Science in agronomy and seed technology in 1980 from Mississippi State University, and just finished a Master of Science in May 2003 from WT in plant, soil, and environmental science.
