Huge Engine, Tiny Body: Mercy Chelangat All About Championship Runs at Alabama
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — It looked like she had a rare bad race.
But in reality, it was probably one of her greatest accomplishments.
Nearly a year ago, Alabama distance runner Mercy Chelangat was looking to defend her individual title at the 2021 NCAA Championships in cross country, and all the pieces appeared to be in place. The NCAA South Region Runner of the Year had even set the course record at the SEC Championships.
Only nothing was quite like it seemed.
Chelangat hadn’t been able to train in the days leading up to the race in Tallahassee, Fla. With a nasty case of the flu, she was lacking strength and endurance, and probably should have been in bed that morning.
Instead, she ran the 6,000-meter course despite how she felt.
“Oh, that was really bad,” Chelangat said.
She finished second — which was remarkable.
“Talk about the [Michael] Jordan flu game,” Crimson Tide track coach Dan Waters said. “It was the Mercy flu meet.
“She just put everything she had into it. She probably couldn’t pull away like she wanted to, like how it gets a little harder from 3K to 5K, to kind of get away from the girls. She just didn’t have the ability. But she hung on as long as she could and basically got out-kicked.”
That’s your starting point when trying to understand Chelangat, and why she’s one of the most decorated athletes in Crimson Tide women’s track history, perhaps second in recent history only to Quanesha Burks.
Chelangat isn’t done yet, though, as the senior is looking for that end kick to her Crimson Tide career this academic year, beginning in cross country.
The SEC Championships will be held at Ole Miss in two weeks, followed by the South Regional in Huntsville on Nov. 11, and the NCAA Championships just eight days later in Stillwater, Okla.
Chelangat will also have the outdoor and indoor seasons as well, but given the choice she prefers cross country. The track meets mean more events, at different distances, and the races are always in a circle. Not on a course.
Environment means a lot to Chelangat, and it goes well beyond hills, grass and trees.
But first, Chalangat will run in the Crimson Classic on Friday morning, the only time during her career that friends and family will have the chance to see her attack the Harry Pritchett Running Course in Tuscaloosa.
Alabama hasn’t hosted a cross country meet since 2017, and this one could be called the Mercy Chelangat Invitational.
“I’m excited,” she said.
The Road to Greatness
Much has been made of Chelangat originally hailing from Kenya, where Alabama has had success attracting distance runners including her brother Vincent Kiprop, an All-American who was twice named the SEC Cross Country Men's Runner of the Year (2017, 2019).
However, it’s not well known that while growing up she didn’t even like the sport.
“In middle school I didn’t run because I just wasn’t interested,” Chelangat said. “Back at home, my brother started running at a really young age, but I did not because I didn’t have someone to look up to. And I didn’t have the support either.”
Vincent was the exception. With his encouragement and the possibility of using it to get a strong education, she finally started running in 2017.
In Kenya, runners go through a program that’s not associated with schools, and they’re pretty much grouped together regardless of skill or experience. Those at the top get the most attention.
Kiprop used it to land a Missouri Southern State University, where he won back-to-back NCAA Division II 10,000-meters titles, along with an indoor 5,000-meter championship and cross-country crown. That led to his transferring to Alabama, to compete at a higher level.
“Rock solid as you’re ever going to see,” Waters said. “You could always count on him.”
But that was after years of competing. Chelangat was new, getting a late start, and raw to the sport’s nuances and training. Nevertheless, with his help she posted some promising times in the developmental program.
“It wasn’t easy,” Chelangat said. “It was hard. To just start running from out of nowhere, it’s really hard. I used to [go] like 20 minutes and I’d be like dead, done completely. My body is shutting down.
“But after I started training, I got better.”
Good enough to initially land a spot at the University of Texas Rio Grande. But there she was dealing with a whole new set of challenges, including with being halfway around the world.
“It was a different environment,” she said. “You get homesick. You don’t have friends. You don’t have family. You don’t have anybody. Different foods. Different country. Everything is different.”
Once again, the brother played a huge part in her future. At Kiprop’s encouragement Waters took more than a leap of faith and gave her a chance with the Crimson Tide. At the time, she wasn’t anywhere near as proven as an athlete.
And that’s when she started to more than like running.
Aided by having someone she could count on, the camaraderie of being on a team, plus having a strong support staff full of people who would not just say “You can be better” but show her how, she did just that.
“I started loving it when I came here,” the champion said.
A Career Like None Other
It didn’t happen immediately. After her first couple of races Waters wouldn’t have been blamed for thinking he had made a big mistake. Chelangat placed 35th at the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational, and 37th in the Pre-National Invitational with times that didn’t turn heads.
But then she placed 10th in the SEC meet, and ninth in the South Regionals.
The newcomer was beginning to find her rhythm.
During the subsequent indoor season, which is very different because it’s run on a track, and Chelangat had very little experience on them, she finished fifth in the mile at the Samford Invitational, and then first in the 3,000-meter run at the Indiana University Relays.
Chelangat subsequently set her first school record, in the 5,000, at the Husky Classic – and to say she broke the old mark doesn’t do it justice. She obliterated it. Her time of 15:37.35 topped the 16:06.91 set by Jessica Fry by nearly 30 seconds.
“I was kind of doubting myself when I first came here, but I kept progressing and I kept getting better,” Chelangat said. “For the most part it was training, but I also started taking better care of myself. That also helped a little bit.”
The result was like what she often does in a race, hit a pace that others can’t maintain. Crimson Tide distance coach Will Palmer describes it as being similar to the Tour de France, going from being part the pack, on the peloton, to conserve as much energy as possible, then when sensing the finish line make a push for it.
“She just has this innate ability when she competes to dig really, really deep,” he said.
In short, Chelangat pulled away and dominated, with accolades and honors scattered in her wake like discounted water bottles along a marathon.
In 2020-21, she was the NCAA Cross Country Individual Champion after recording a time of 20:01.1, and won the Honda Award as the best athlete in her sport. For an encore, she took second in the 10,000 meters (32.22.11), and was fifth in the 5,000 meters (15:33.20) at the NCAA Outdoor Championships
Last year, she rebounded from the silver-medal finish in cross country to score the most individual distance points at the SEC Indoors Championships thanks to a win in the 5,000 meters and a fourth-place finish in the 3,000 meters. She won bronze in the 5,000 at the NCAA Championships with a school-record time of 15:31.06.
In the spring, she captured the Crimson Tide's first NCAA 10,000-meter title, running 32:37.08 to finish 12 seconds ahead of the field.
“She’s a very gifted athlete,” Waters said. “You wouldn’t look at her and go “Oh wow, look at what she can do.” She can’t dunk a basketball, spike a volleyball, dribble through defender on a soccer pitch or anything like that.
“She just has a huge engine, in her tiny little body.”
But to use some of those same analogies, to Alabama track Chelangat is that key person who always makes the equivalent of a free-throw, or field goal, with the game on the line.
She’s always on, and on target for a potentially long career as a marathon runner.
“She’s seen a lot. She’s experienced a lot,” Waters said. “Mentally she’s as strong as anyone I’ve ever seen.
“Nothing, nothing fazes her.”
The Crimson Classic
Where: Harry Pritchett Running Park
When: Friday morning
The men’s race, on the 8,000-meter course, will begin at 8:30 a.m.
The women’s race, over 6 kilometers, will start at 9:20 a.m.
Directions :
• From Veterans Memorial Parkway & Loop Road: From The University of Alabama Campus to Harry Pritchett Running Park Take Paul Bryant Drive East to Hwy. 82. Go east on Hwy. 82 (to 2nd traffic light) and make a left (east) on 15th street. Go east on 15th street and continue until you see a sign for Arboretum. You must be in the right lane to take this exit. Go straight off the exit. Make a left and follow road as it curves down the hill.
• From East/ West of Tuscaloosa to Harry Pritchett Running Park: Take I-20/ 59 to exit 73 (Hwy. 82). Go west on Hwy. 82 through several traffic lights to 15th street (the light after University Mall). Make a right (east) on 15th street and continue until you see a sign for Arboretum. You must be in the right lane to take this exit. Go straight off the exit. Make a left and follow road as it curves down the hill.
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