We are just hours before the 2015 State Championships get underway and still have many questions waiting to be answered. It is almost surreal how quickly the season goes by but also exciting to finally see who is ready and what they will do. Two individuals who may be the most intriguing are Weini Kelati and Andrew Hunter.
Though there are many stars in the Commonwealth of Virginia, these two could perhaps be the greatest duo ever. The amazing thing is for the first time ever we could see both state meet records and state records set in the same year by athletes in their final state race. History is truly on the line.
It is quite fitting that these two questions will be the first two answered this year since the 4A Girls and 4A Boys races are the first two on the course and for those wondering, the course is going to run very fast tomorrow.
First on the course for one last time will be Heritage's Weini Kelati. She has run a VA #2 all-time and US #2 16:29 already this season and will look to go much faster on the Great Meadow course. She will have a lot of competition though from Libby Davidson who is the current state meet record holder at 17:12. Both of these girls will push to set that record even lower.
For Kelati to break the record she will have to run fast but to break the state record of 16:26 she is going to have to basically sprint the whole race, a concept she openly accepts. It is worth noting that when she ran her 16:29 at Third Battle on 10/17 she was relaxed and not tired at all. She literally finished and jogged back to cheer on her teammates. If she pushes it to the limit we are in for something special.
Drew (Loudoun Valley) on the other hand will have a clean race and be off to the races between him and the lead cart. He is a smart racer and hopefully will go for a great time because at this point in the season and with his fitness level, it is all up to him. He will almost certainly break his old state meet record of 14:41 but the real question is can he go faster then his Third Battle time of 14:20.
History seems to be on both their sides as we have seen seven girls' state meet records in a row and two boys' state meet records in the past three years. The course is almost the same but the athletes just keep getting better. It is also worth noting that Drew improved 15 seconds last year on his Third Battle time at states.
There are a lot of predictions out there and variables at play but one thing is for sure, if they are going to break those records and really break them then they are going to have to put together a special performance.
Here comes the fun part, below are the paces each of them would have to hit to run the times we believe they are capable of doing. We have adjusted them slightly due to familiarity with the terrain and racing styles. Tweet us @MileStatdotcom and let us know what you think, realistic or nah?
Pace Checkpoints for a REAL record performance that they are capable of:
| 200 | 400 | 800 | 1200 | Mile | 2.5K | 3K | 2 Mile | 2.5 Mile | 2.75Mile | 3 Mile | 5K | Average 200 | Average 1K | |
| Weini Kelati | 43 | 1:20 | 2:30 | 3:56 | 4:50 | 7:56 | 9:26 | 10:10 | 12:40 | 14:00 | 15:20 | 15:59 | 38.4 | 3:12 |
| Andrew Hunter | 38 | 1:15 | 2:15 | 3:28 | 4:28 | 6:58 | 8:24 | 9:00 | 11:16 | 12:19 | 13:26 | 13:59 | 33.6 | 2:48 |
To substantiate this further, here are their personal bests for different events, mind you that they are in better shape now then when they set these.
| 800m | 1000m Indoors | Mile | 3K | 3200 | 5K | |
| Weini Kelati | N/A | 3:09 | N/A | 9:12 | 10:36 | 16:29 |
| Andrew Hunter | 1:52 | 2:28 | 4:02 | 8:16 | 8:39c | 14:20 |