Five time national champion and national record holder, Weini Kelati announced late Thursday evening that she will run for the Univeristy of New Mexico via twitter.
Weini will go down as one of the best runners to ever call Virginia home. She ended a 35 year drought by winning the Foot Locker National title in 2015 and would go on to win two 5K and two Mile national championships in track last year. She unfortunately was only able to compete two seasons in Virginia due to her age.
She finished her high school career with a 16:08 pr in the 5K, 9:12 pr in the 3K, and 9:53 state record pr in the 3200. Her 5K pr was run indoors and is a national record. Her best XC time was 16:29 and is a state record for 5K's actually run inside the state of Virginia and second all-time for VA overall.
Not only was Weini one of the best athletes to ever grace VA, she was also one of the most humble and nice person to compete for VA. She was seen at multiple national championships handing out national championship rings to coaches and the such and always trying to help others. She always wanted to make people smile and have a good time. She clearly loves running and that feeling was infectious.
She rose to fame quite quickly with her first ever race in VA at Oatlands. She entered the competition not knowing any english and wearing trainers instead of spikes. She ran a blazing 18:11, which at the time was #2 all-time on the course after stopping twice to tie her shoes.
Weini Kelati's Athlete Page
She would then go on to win a stellar five other races in a row before the matchup of the century with Libby Davidson. Both would say that meeting in that race was one of the biggest races of their career. They both entered undefeated having won at least six races prior in four different states. That rivalry took off and elevated all the competition in the state over the past two years.
Weini would regain her former strength last season and made it a perfect eight for eight culminating in a Foot Locker National Title while running injured. She then won another two 5K's to make it a sweep of the 5K national titles last year.
She will no doubt succeed on the next level at New Mexico and is very excited to continue her running career.
