After a couple of days to let everything sink in that took place at the 2025 NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships, Kelty Oaster and head coach Brian Falk provided their thoughts to recap the exciting weekend that was for the Elizabethtown College women's track & field program that culminated in a second national title in the 800 meters in 2025 for Oaster.

BF - Brian Falk

KO - Kelty Oaster

...ON RACE STRATEGY GOING INTO THE CHAMPIONSHIPS

BF - The biggest thing she wanted to do was get one of the automatic qualifiers. I wasn't really sure how the prelim would shake out, because she's running with Tanise...Tanise has the fastest time in the country...Tanise has had really good success holding back a little bit the last time they raced, so she was kind of ready for that. When the race started, it was clear Tanise was going to take it from the front, so Kelty just needed to stay with her. They had company for a while, but in the end, it was just the two of them, so it worked out pretty smoothly [on getting the auto qualifying spot to advance to Saturday's final].

KO - I was thankful to have Tanise Thornton-Fillyaw (Goucher) in my heat, one of my conference competitors. Since I have raced her many times, I am familiar with her racing style, and I felt confident in her ability to run at a good pace, especially since she was the top seed entering the (preliminary) race. I knew that if I followed her and made the same moves that she did, the two of us would be able to make it to the final without much trouble.

...ON KELTY'S STRENGTHS AS A RUNNER AND COMPETITOR

BF - She has fantastic 400-meter speed and she has great strength to run the 1500-meter with, but that doesn't separate her from the other top people in the country...she has really cultivated an astute racing sense that I think's the best among the top people right now and I think it's the reason she keeps finding her way to the front in these races. She knows how far back she can start kicking from, and she knows when she needs to move, she just really has a tactical awareness that is elite and it's the only difference between her and the other top people.

KO - Aside from the fitness aspect, I think one of my biggest strengths is that I have good instincts. In terms of competitive racing, I was one of the most experienced runners in the field. I have been in so many different kinds of races, and I've learned so much with each mistake I have made. With all of these experiences and mistakes, I now have the advantage of being able to make good and decisive decisions in a race.

...ON THOUGHTS DURING THE 800-METER FINAL

BF - In the first 200 meters, I can see it had gone out really...she didn't want to try to race to the front off a really hard opening 200, so she was 7th going into the turn, but they were running 30 seconds, so that wasn't a disaster.

I was worried about how she felt overall because she had been fighting a cold all week long and it definitely wasn't gone. When they came around the turn, I was down watching from beyond the finish line, but I saw them coming around the turn and I saw her coming around the main group to close on the lead, and that's not a move that she...first of all, not a move she's often in a position to even need to attempt...but it's just not something she's done, so when I saw her passing all those people, I knew she was feeling good. She wasn't waiting to go to the front.

So I got confidence from that, but then it's one thing to get there and it's another to get by, and you didn't know how it was going to shake out with 500 meters to go. She was moving and she was looking really good, and when it turned into a two-person race, I just, hoped she'd remember good sprint mechanics and just fight to get across the line.

I felt good about it before it was even over, but obviously, we all wanted Kelty to win so glad that happened, too.

...ON GETTING CAUGHT IN THE BACK EARLY ON

 KO - I was definitely feeling scared when I was in 7th place early in the race, but I also tried to remind myself as I saw the clock at 200 meters that it was exactly how I wanted to go out, and I would have to trust that things would spread out soon. I knew that I would have to make a move soon to fix my position.

...ON MAKING HER MOVE AROUND THE 300-METER MARK FOR BETTER POSITIONING
KO -  I saw the front of the race start to spread out and Megan Bell (Rochester) began to pull away slightly. I knew that if I did not attach myself to the front pack, then the race would get away from me and it would be too late. It was a purely instinctual move. My gut was telling me that I needed to not think, and just go, so I trusted it. Without a doubt, that decision is what set me up to win the race.

...ON KNOWING SHE STILL NEEDED TO MAKE UP GROUND

KO - I was feeling pretty good with 300 meters left in the race. I could feel myself slowly catching up to Megan Bell. I knew that I had outkicked her before at the end of the race during the indoor national meet, so I tried to just maintain contact and wait until the final turn to make my next move.

...ON COMING OFF THE FINAL TURN AND COMING DOWN THE HOMESTRETCH
KO - Selfishly, I was hoping that after coming off the final turn, I would be able to immediately pull away, but she was able to hang on, and it was a battle down the homestretch. I forgot to focus on my sprint form that my coach and I have been working on the entire year, but I would like to think some of it was there through habit. I spent the last 30 meters trying to figure out how I was going to lean my way across the line before Megan and ended up trying to throw a shoulder across the line at the last second.

...ON INSTANT REACTION TO CROSSING THE LINE, REALIZING KELTY WON

BF - I guess it was a little bit of relief. I had people turning around yelling at me, people that were in the vicinity while the race was going on that I didn't know were there, were turning around to yell at me right after her name went up. It's almost like confusion when you're laser focused on one person running a race and within two seconds you're hearing people scream your name from different angles to congratulate me...thank you, I didn't actually do it, but thank you I appreciate you congratulating me, but you're just thinking, let me get to her, let me congratulate her, what do I have to do next, oh I have to give the awards, let's not screw that up, don't want to look silly down there in front of everybody...it's just a lot of giddy, joy stuff that you don't really rehearse it in your head, you just have to think of it when it happens.

KO - I remember crossing the line and thinking, "Wow I think I got it". I was 60 or 70 percent sure that I had won, but I definitely needed to verify that and wait for our names to pop up on the scoreboard. In hindsight, it was somehow closer than I thought, and it could have just as easily been her (Bell) win. 

My ultimate goal going into the meet was to win, but after dealing with a lot of self-doubt, I was in some disbelief that I had done it. After congratulating my competitor, my next thought was trying to find my family and friends who had made the trip out to celebrate the win with them.

...ON HOW HARD IT IS TO DO WHAT KELTY'S DONE, TWICE

BF - It's pretty astonishing...it's hard to imagine winning two national titles by a combined margin of .17 seconds, so they were both extremely close races.

She's just got a great last gear, and like I said before, she's just got a really good sense of herself and a sense of what's going on out there. She's just a really sharp, smart decision maker while the race is happening. And you can't really coach that, you just get to enjoy it when you see it. It's nice when it's the kid in your uniform that does that, but that's all between her ears, it's not anything we spend any time on at practice.

...ON BEING/HAVING A FIRST-EVER NATIONAL CHAMPION FOR THE PROGRAM

BF - It's a lot of fun! It's a nice thing for the program, there are a lot of fantastic people that have come through here and only one person has done it before.

KO - It feels a bit surreal to be able to get not only one but two national titles. It is something that started a few years ago as a distant dream, but the more I trained and got better, the more I realized it might actually be possible.

I feel really grateful that I am able to give something back to the school and the program that gave me so much. I wouldn't have been able to accomplish any of this without the support of everyone along the way. So, this is not only a win for me, but also for my teammates, coaches, and the entire Etown community.