Kelso reflects on championship career at Vandebilt Catholic

Seven team state championships. Ten more combined individual or relay state titles. Twenty-seven podium appearances. 

Sounds like an amazing run by a team, but in this case, it’s the team and individual accomplishments for recent Vandebilt Catholic graduate Brynn Kelso. Kelso achieved the success across cross country, indoor and outdoor track and field, all of which she has competed in since the eighth grade. That total may have been higher, but the COVID-19 pandemic canceled the 2020 outdoor track and field season.

Kelso said she always ran with her father, Matt Kelso, in 5K races, and she was successful in elementary school cross country. She also won a middle school state title.

“That’s kind of when I realized maybe this could be something and then went into Vandebilt and started there,” the younger Kelso said.

At Vandebilt, she was part of five cross country state titles and two more outdoor track and field state crowns. She won two individual cross country state titles and finished as state runner-up as an eighth grader.

She has three state runner-up finishes and one third-place medal in indoor track and field.

Outdoor track and field is where the bulk of her medals were earned. Just looking at state titles, she has two in the 1,600-meter run, she was a part of three 4x800-meter relay state titles, and she won two state titles in the 800-meter run and another 3,200-meter run title. The 2021 state championship 4x800 meter relay that she was a part of still holds the Class 4A state record.

Vandebilt Catholic Cross Country coach David Malone credits Kelso’s father for her success. The elder Kelso ran for the United Kingdom and Scottish national teams and competed in cross country and track and field at Nicholls. 

“He gave me somebody that was all ready to rock and roll,” Malone said.

Kelso will continue her running career at the University of Southern Mississippi where she will compete in cross country and track and field. 

Vandebilt girls Track and Field coach Jeremy Ezell said Kelso is prepared for the college-level training she will face.

“It’s not a hobby at this point,” Ezell said. “You got to really want it to put yourself through that much pain. So I think that she does want it, and I’m looking forward to see how she transitions.”

Looking back on her prep career, Kelso said it wasn’t until May that she counted how many times she had been on a podium for state competition — either individually or as a team. She said observers don’t see the “roller coaster ride” that running is, one that along the way, she said she has continued growing, remained humble and continued working.

It was in a loss this spring at the state track and field meet while trying to win the 800-, 1,600- and 3,200-meter runs that Kelso made a lasting memory, too. Kelso competed in the 800-meter run with just 25 minutes of rest after winning the 1,600-meter run, and with not a lot of rest time, she fell just short of eighth-grader Aldany Dupree of Plaquemine in the 800. Dupree ran 2:18.61 to Kelso’s 2:18.88. 

As the duo walked to the podium, Dupree put her arm around Kelso’s shoulder, and Kelso said the younger runner thanked her for pushing her to be a better runner. Dupree told Kelso she was a role model for the younger runner, Kelso recalled.

“I saw so much of myself in her because I will never forget my eighth-grade year beating an upperclassman that I never would have thought that I would have beaten in the mile. … It was kind of like a full-circle moment for me,” Kelso said.

One of many memorable moments in a championship-caliber career.