Sometimes, things just naturally run in the family.

Take the case of UW track and field member Jessica Jeremiah.

Jeremiah never really competed in track and field until high school, but when looking at her family genes, there was no doubt she would eventually find her way out to the track.

The daughter of Asele Woy — a 1980 Olympian for Nigeria's 4x400 relay team — Jeremiah took after her mother. But it wasn't because her mother pressed it on her as a kid.

"She never really taught me a lot about track growing up," Jeremiah said. "I knew what track was and ran races in elementary school and stuff like that, but then high school was when I really started competing."

Jeremiah's mom never really boasts about her Olympic feats, either.

"She's really modest about it, but you can tell she knows a lot about track," Jeremiah said. "We know her stats and all that, but she doesn't talk about how she did. She just talks about how she ran and what her motivation was and all that kind of stuff."

For Jeremiah, her biggest motivation is her mother.

As Jeremiah continues to adjust to the jump to the competition at the college level, as well as academics, she knows she can always turn to her mother.

Not only is Asele a loving and caring mother, but also she knows what Jeremiah is going through out on the track as she, too, went through the same struggle.

"She's great," Jeremiah said. "She's always very supportive and calls before every meet and just asks how I'm doing.

"But my brother's also very supportive, too."

Jeremiah and her brother — Idiato — grew up always racing against each other. Any time, anywhere.

"When we were little we raced against each other and people on the playground and stuff like that."

But Jeremiah was never able to beat her brother, ever.

"When I was little, I was a lot closer to him," she said. "He's kind of better than me now, a lot better, actually."

While Jeremiah made her decision to attend UW, "Idi" decided to leave their Milwaukee home for Johnson County Community College in Kansas.

However, there's a strong possibility that the two siblings could someday be reunited on the track as Idi is seeking to transfer to a Big Ten school after his first two years at junior college, maybe even Wisconsin.

"He's very into track," Jeremiah said of her brother. "He wants to be in the Big Ten and it'd be nice if he transferred here."

It wouldn't be much of a surprise to men's track and field head coach Ed Nuttycombe, either, as he actually recruited Jeremiah's brother coming out of high school — and deservedly so.

Idiato Jeremiah was a standout in track and football at Nathan Hale High School (West Allis, Wis.) and was the state runner-up in the 100- and 200-meter events his senior year.

But regardless of her family ties, Jeremiah's only focus right now is improvement.

The sprinter/jumper is concentrating almost exclusively on the triple-jump event right now and is hoping to hit a personal goal of 40-feet this outdoor season.

"I haven't hit my [personal record of 38-8 3/7 in high school] yet, but I've been a little more consistent, I got stronger, and my runway's better," she said. "Everything's better, it's just that I'm kind of stuck at this one point.

"I'm just looking to put everything together and put a 40-foot jump out there pretty soon."

Judging by the way things worked out for her mother, it wouldn't surprising to see Jeremiah hit her goal sometime soon and jump to new heights.