Local runner is committed to team and personal success    

For Kelly Mantel, track and field as well as cross country have been important parts of her life since childhood.

Mantel, who hails from Brant County, was introduced to the sport by her parents, who have been avid runners. However, she did enjoy participating in various other sports before getting serious about track and field.

“They would always take me and my sister along to races, and we would do the kiddie runs. I really liked doing the 500M to 2K. It definitely helped having parents that didn’t push me into sport…it was a natural start to get into running. But running wasn’t my first choice. I did noncompetitive synchronized swimming at the Brant Artistic Swimming Club for around four years….After that, I moved on to horseback riding, which I did competitively for about six years and overall, having been doing for ten years now.  But I have always come back to running because it’s something that you can do year-round and you don’t need any equipment to do it. At any point I can just leave my house and go for a run, which relieves any stress that I have that day…and plus I simply love to run,” Mantel said.

Nevertheless, the track and field star has been a part of the Brantford Track and Field Club (BTFC) since she was nine years old.

“I started with MTA [Minor Track Association]. The BTFC with that association, and I was coached under Brent Hutchinson, who is a great coach. He’s president of the BTFC and still coaching. And then I moved up, eventually being coached by Donna Campbell, and after she moved away, my coach Josh Bolton, who has helped in my development and a great motivator. He ran for the University of Windsor team and he has so much knowledge about the sport,” she noted.

Along with being part of the BTFC, Mantel had a solid career on the track at Paris District High School earning both the Most Outstanding Senior in Track and Field and Senior Female Athlete of the Year honours in 2023.

“I started my high school doing cross country, so I was a lot more focused on longer distance running compared to where I am right now. During my grade-nine year, I made it to OFSSA which is definitely a highlight for me. It was always my goal to earn a OFSSA sweater, and I am happy to say that that’s a big part of my collection and I am very proud of that. OFSSA was held in Sudbury that year, and it was very cold…I was practically running on ice, and I came in the top 20, which is a great finish for being in grade nine. I didn’t realize it at the time, but now looking back, it was quite the accomplishment and a highlight of my high school career,” she said. “Then the pandemic hit. I missed out on my Grade nine track and Grade ten cross country experience. I basically missed out on all of my junior and novice years…and I skipped right to senior, which was a bit of a hit for my development. I was mixed in with all these other athletes from grades including 11, 12, 13 students and me coming off of my grade nine cross country. I really didn’t expect the depth of the athletes in that third year, though I did make it to OFSSA track in my grade 11 year which was another highlight during my time in high school. My 800M then was a personal best for me which helped me get to OFSSA that year. That was a huge accomplishment, because not a lot of grade 11 athletes make it in that senior year, just because of all the competition coming from the 16, 17 and 18-year-olds.”

However, with the pandemic taking at least a year from her opportunity to compete, Mantel decided to eventually take Grade 13.

“I was falling out of love with the long-distance race because I went up to 6K coming off of the 4K race, and had a very respectable finish, but it wasn’t my best, and not what you want those recruiters to see. But moving on to track, in Grade 12, I didn’t make it to…that was really disappointing, because, again, I was looking forward to going to university the next year…but, I made the decision to take my Grade 13 because I wanted to do track again. I ended up working my first semester and then doing a two-period Co Op, just so I could get on the track. I ended up doing 400M hurdles, which was a new event. I had so much fun competing in that event, and I fell in love with it that year. And then I did four 400M flat, and then 800M, and I ended up making it for both the 800M and the 400M hurdles, which was very unexpected,” she noted. “I ran both of those races on the same day at CWOSSA…they were two hours apart, and I qualified for both. And then for OFSSA, which was held in London during my last year of high school. I had expectations to do well…[but] to make a long story short, I ended up twisting my ankle in that last hurdle [for the 400M] which was a tough pill to swallow because I would’ve moved on to the finals if I reached the top eight and finished with ninth place, ending my time in track at high school.”

Mantel, who earned BTFC Athlete of the Year honours in 2025, has also occasionally competed with the club through high school, and mentioned a highlight.

“I went to Indoor Nationals with the club, and I ended up medaling three times.  I notched third place in the indoor 800M then we captured second place in our 4x200M, and then first in our 4x400M. It was such a great feeling to get to the podium three times, earning three national medals while the team bonded well with each other,” Mantel said. “We also went to the indoor Nationals last year. We earned first in the 4x200M and first in the 4x400M…realizing that a lot of my teammates are completely different ages from me.”

Throughout the years, Mantel has also gotten the opportunity to train and compete alongside her mom.

“My mom and I had a chance to compete with each other. It was a provincial cross-country race in London during the pandemic. At that time, they couldn’t race everybody at the same time, so they had to split us up….and we would start in groups of 20 to 30 people…but in my case, there were actually closer to 150 people in my race, just spread out throughout the day. My mom also raced. She does her Master’s races, having a lot of experience in cross country. We’ve done a lot of road racing together too… [and] before I got into sprinting, I did a lot of 5K races, and she would do either in the five or the ten with me. She loves coming to my cross country and track meets all the time and has been a tremendous motivator,” she said.

However, while several universities were on her radar, Mantel would decide to go to the University of Western Ontario. 

“I remember being very stressed out about making the team. I didn’t really know what to expect, because usually recruits get a tour before they join the team. And I obviously didn’t get that. I didn’t really have any expectations. So that first month, I trained hard. I was overprepared for the tryout that ended up being just a split 800M and a 400M. The head coach Vickie Crawley told me what my target should be five minutes before I started. It shook me a bit…I was the only girl trying out for the middle-distance group, so it was just me doing this split 800M and with all of the sprinters and all the middle-distance runners watching me. So that was very intimidating. I ran hard but, I was well below the pace. I had to show the them that I deserved to be on the team and that I could be an asset,” Mantel stated. “During the first year, I was lucky to train with Favour Okpali, who was a mentor to me. I was following her even before I joined Western’s team. And she’s just so such a spectacular runner, and to train with her [and] see what could potentially be in my future.”

Despite not making it to the provincial or national teams, Mantel continued to relish her first year at Western.

“I actually set a personal best by about three seconds that whole year, which is pretty good for a 600M because it’s basically a sprint. Unfortunately, I didn’t end up making the provincial or the national team, because runners need to run a certain time to be selected. They only take about half the team to those events, but our team was so deep last year, and it really shows, because the women won provincials, and the men came second. And then both teams won nationals, which has never happened in the program’s history. Although I didn’t make it to those events, I was ok with that…I definitely wasn’t quite qualified to be there, yet it was great to see all my friends get what they deserved after that long break with Covid and training hard all year…it was great watching them progress. And that was the highlight of my first year,” she stated.

However, during the summer season, the runner was drafted to the Canadian Track and Field League, an experience Mantel enjoyed.

“I was drafted to the Arctic team this year for the 400M hurdles. Basically, it’s a series of meets where you compete for points based on your score and time. And at the end of the year, there’s a finale meet, and there’s prize money to be won…but, it’s so much more than that. All these major league teams are brought together, and all this media is there, which provides attention to track and field in Canada. With this event, it really got some more eyes on the sport, and I think it’ll just be something that’s going to grow for the next few years,” she observed.

Going into the second year at Western, or 2025-26 season, Mantel has gotten a bit more comfortable, hitting some personal bests.

“My personal best going into this year was 136.8 for the 600M and that was on a bank track. In university, there are these bank tracks which have a bit of a slant on the corners. And then there are flat tracks, which Western has (which have no banks), and anything run on a flat track can be converted to a faster time because of that difference in the bank and the flat times. So that’s about as fast as you can get. And then this year, I started off with running close to a personal best, but it was a flat track. I ran a 136.9, but then at my second meet, I ran a 135.3, and that was probably the highlight of this year so far for me,“ Mantel reflected. “We also have a new head coach this year. Her name is Caroline Ehrhardt. She’s been with Western since she was a student herself. Her husband, Taylor, is also part of the coaching team and is my sprint coach. They have been very supportive and honestly the best coaches I could ask for…having experienced all of the highs and lows themselves of being varsity athletes themselves.”

Nevertheless, the veteran track and field athlete has some short-term goals she would like to accomplish.  

“Every year we have to make a goal sheet, and then we send it to our coaches so that they have a visual of what we expect from ourselves and what we expect from them. I wrote that I wanted to make it to the OUA roster, which is definitely doable, and also to score points for my team. So, to score points, you have to be in the top eight, possibly in the top ten, and these points go towards your teams’ total. A lot of people think that track is just the individual sport, which arguably it is, but when it comes to university track, it’s so much more than that. If you get points, this just goes towards your team total, and you have the potential of helping the team place in first, second, or third. And it’s just it makes track so much more interesting because everybody watching is cheering for that team…even if you don’t do well at your event, you’re still cheering for your teammates, because you want those points. You want to succeed as a team.”

Currently, Mantel is studying kinesiology with an eye for coaching as well as teaching.

“Beyond university, the goal originally was to go into physiotherapy, and that’s still in the cards for me. I can be a registered kinesiologist right out of school, and to be a physiotherapist…you just have to go through two years of master’s, which is definitely reasonable, and could potentially be my future. Also, it’d really like to get into a coaching role, because I do love doing that….it’s definitely one of my passions. I love seeing kids’ progress while they are having fun out there. I’ll be coaching some of the London/Western kids soon, which will be really fun. I know in most cases coaching is usually a side job, because you don’t really get paid a lot for doing that, but it’s definitely a rewarding experience. And I was also considering becoming a teacher, because it’s also very rewarding…giving me a chance to help guide and inspire kids,” she explained.

However, even if running professionally isn’t a possibility, Mantel’s passion for track and field and cross-country still burns.

“It’s definitely part of my identity, and it’s never going to change [and] even if I don’t make it professionally. I’d love to do what my mom’s doing as she is a Canadian Master’s athlete…and participating in the world athletics for Masters, which would be great. My mom went to that last year in Florida…It’s a whole another world that you don’t really know exists, but it’s there for nonprofessional people who are over 30,” Mantel stated. ”It would be really cool to move on [and] have an actual career outside of school, [but] having a job, it would be really tough to balance. Being at the track for long stretches, to train and eventually compete, along with having a full-time job is definitely a big commitment. It’s definitely something that you have to plan for. So, I guess I’ll have to figure that out and what I want to do.”