After leading a good portion of the NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships only to lose the title within sight of the finish line, Weini Kelati of New Mexico turned what could have easily been a devastating setback into a valuable learning experience.

The sophomore ran within herself before shedding her bunched competitors and staving off a late charge from Oregon’s Carmela Cardama Baez to win her first national title in the 10,000m in a facility-record 33:10.84 last night at Mike A. Meyers Stadium in Austin.

“I always learn something and take it to the next level because different races come with different challenges,” Kelati said. “It feels like you didn’t run 25 laps when you get a win.”

With a sweat-soaked Lobos flag draped over her shoulders, Kelati spoke to the fortitude it took for her to bounce back from her loss to Dani Jones of Colorado at NCAA cross to earn her first national championship.

“Sometimes you lose and work really hard and then hurt yourself,” she said. “That’s not me. There are other good runners working hard too. They want to win. They want to be a champion. I respect them. I accepted that I got beat and believed that if I prepared for the next experience, I could become strong.”

Part of that preparation included conditioning herself mentally to succeed in tactical races, a must-have ability in championships no matter how uncomfortable.

“I don’t like this kind of tactical racing, but I prepared for it,” she said. “I know anything can happen, but I am going to deal with it.”

True to form, the race started out with no one really wanting to assert themselves in the front. As such, the paces suffered to the point where one wondered if they were watching a championship race or a distance running game of Plinko.

Kelati reluctantly obliged for the first three laps and ticked off preposterously-slow laps of 79, 88 and 91.06. After coming through the first mile in 5:44, Notre Dame’s Anna Rohrer took control and valiantly tried to salvage an honest pace. Amazingly, she began to string out a completely bunched pack with splits of 75.72 and 77.86 through 2400 meters.

“We had a real slow first mile and I know that my strength is grinding it out the whole time,” Rohrer said. “I was patient for a mile and no one was taking it so I know if I want to have a shot then I gotta have an honest race.”

Rohrer, who has battled hamstring tendonitis in both legs since the cross-country season, commendably led laps five through 10, bringing a formation of 17 runners through the two miles in 10:56. She ceded the lead on lap 12 to Kelati, who was not about to start pushing an aggressive pace. She brought the leaders through 5K in 16:56 and averaged 80-second quarters over the next four trips around the track.

“I learned that when I have led the entire race in championships before, it doesn’t work for me so why do I have to hurt my (chances),” Kelati said. “I waited, but when I saw (Rohrer) leading (for a while) I went and tried to help her because I didn’t want her to lead the whole thing by herself. I know her. I was wishing to be like her when I was in high school.”

Rohrer would trade off with Kelati up front again with nine laps remaining, only this time the senior was more aggressive in pushing splits of 79, 77 and 78. With five laps remaining, Kelati retook the lead and with a seemingly innocuous 2:30 next 800 meters completely busted open this pillow fight of a race, taking a 10-meter lead. 

“Maybe I didn’t run a fast 5K this outdoor season but I would say that I was fit and I saved it for Nationals so that it would help me finish strong,” Kelati said.

With three laps to go, Kelati built her lead to a solid 20 meters over Rohrer, Washington’s Isobel Batt-Doyle, Arkansas’ Taylor Werner as she clicked off 77-second laps looked as if she would cruise the rest of the way uncontested. What she didn’t account for was Oregon’s Cardama Baez lurking in fifth place.

“I wasn’t thinking that far ahead,” Cardama Baez said. “The thing I’m good at is getting on the rail and staying anonymous and pretending that I’m not there and usually people fall for it, so it worked.

“I tried to get one by one and forget what was happening behind. With four laps to go I was staying behind Izzy Batt-Doyle and Taylor, they’re amazing runners. They’ve kicked my ass multiple times and suddenly I saw (coach Helen Lehman Winters) and she’s like, ‘Go, go go,’ and I’m like, ‘Ok.’”

On the bell lap, Kelati found herself with a fight on her hands as Cardama Baez began cranking up her kick. The junior made up significant ground on the back stretch and appeared as if she might actually win the race with 150 meters to go. 

“When we were at 100 meters left I could see her shadow and I was like, ‘Wow, someone is coming close to me,’” Kelati said. “But I kept pushing until the finish line because I will try until I can’t try any more.”

As the runners hit the final straight, Cardama Baez pulled even with Kelati’s right shoulder with about 30 meters to go. But Kelati dug deep one final time to hold her off for the win. Cardama Baez, who split 68 on the final lap to Kelati’s 73, crossed less than a second behind in 33:11.56, Oregon’s best finish in the 10,000m since 1984. Rohrer would finish sixth.

“Suddenly there’s a lap to go and I’m like, ‘I think I can get her,’” Cardama Baez said. “I wasn’t really thinking, I was just going to go for it and I think I freaked out a little when I got next to her and I was just looking at the line trying to get there.”