Breaking: Kelsey Chmiel WILL NOT RACE 2023 NCAA Cross Country Championships Due To Injury

NC State’s quest for a three-peat at the 2023 women’s NCAA Cross Country Championships suffered a major blow today as NC State coach 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 tomorrow if they are going to upset #1 NAU. The good news for NC State is Henes said everyone else on the team is ready to go, including transfer Amaris Tyynismaa, who has finished in the top 10 individually at two of the last three 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.

“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. “Katelyn is in better shape than she’s ever been.”

Jonathan Gault’s full interview with Henes appears below.

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Talk about Chmiel’s injury and NC State’s chances on our world-famous messageboard: MB: Breaking: Kelsey Chmiel WILL NOT RACE 2023 NCAA XC Champs due to injury .

More: *Complete 2023 NCAA XC Coverage

• 2023 NCAA Men’s Individual XC Preview: An Aussie, an Eritrean, and a couple of 21-year-old Americans walk into a cross country course… A 21-year-old American hasn’t won this race in more than 20-years but two, Graham Blanks and Nico Young, have a shot this year
• 2023 NCAA XC Women’s Individual Preview: Who Has The Edge in Valby-Tuohy II? Tuohy topped Valby in 2022 but Valby destroyed Tuohy at Nuttycombe this year. Who wins this much-anticipated rematch in what very well could be their final NCAA showdown?
• 2023 NCAA XC Women’s Preview: Surging NAU Tries to Derail NC State 3-Peat No women’s team has three-peated since Stanford (2005-07) while the NAU women have never won NCAA XC. Will one of those droughts change on Saturday?
• 2023 NCAA XC Men’s Preview: The NAU-OSU Rematch Should Be Incredible NAU beat OSU on a tiebreaker a year ago and both teams could be even better in 2023. Who will win it all in Charlottesville?
• 2023 NCAA Cross Country Championships Streaming and Television Info The meet will be on ESPNU and the ESPN App.

Editor’s note: This article initially was published without any of the quotes from Henes as the video was uploading.