NC State's quest for a three-peat at the women's NCAA Cross Country Championships suffered a major blow today as NC State Laurie Henes told our Jonathan Gault this morning that her #2 runner - Kelsey Chmiel - will not race in tomorrow's championships. Chmiel developed a lower leg injury after ACCs and they were hoping it would get better but it hasn't and she will not start tomorrow.
"That's obviously a big blow," said Henes. "I mean she's a 13 -time All-American and one of the most consistent athletes in the NCAA. I think everybody loves Kelsey. It's just it's been hard on us the last couple of days. She did everything she can to get (back) but it's not gonna happen. It's not fractured. It's not surgical. So she'll be okay, but she is not able to run on it."
"It's just like a little bit hard energy wise," added Henes."Because Kelsey is like the heart and soul of the program and it's been tough. But she's here - ready to cheer everybody on and they're gonna put it all out there for her, too."
With Chmiel, who has finished 3rd and 6th individually at the last two NCAA Cross Country Championships, out, #2 NC State now will likely need everything else to go well for it tomorrow if they are going to upset #1 NAU. The good news for NC State is Coach Henes said everyone else on the team is ready to go, including transfer Amaris Tyynismaa, who has finished in the top 10 individually at each of the last two NCAAs for Alabama but has dropped out of NC State's last two races.
Henes said Tyynismaa had a calf cramp at ACCs but wasn't sure what ailed her at the regional meet. "I think I think we're just going to be careful to not have too specific of a (race) strategy for her. I think she's just a pretty intuitive runner with a lot of talent and we're just gonna let her go out there and run how she feels," said Henes.
As for defending NCAA champ Katelyn Tuohy, Henes said she's ready to go. "Kaitlyn is in better shape than she's ever been."