With a victory at the 2024 CTFL Finals, Jadyn Keeler has crowned herself as champion of the women’s 5000m.

Running for the 2024 championship team, the Arctics, Keeler has spent the entirety of the season climbing the standings with personal record after personal record. In the finals, she took the win by nearly 50 seconds, gathering a total of 63 points for the Arctics.

But the path to victory for the University of North Dakota D1 NCAA athlete wasn’t obvious from the start of the season. 

Her first 5000m race of the season was in St. Paul, Minnesota, where she ran a respectable 17:40.02. This served as her Free Mark heading into the 2024 CTFL season, which was good for 13 points as the fourth-best in the discipline. The best free mark of the season was run by Spitfires’ Olivia Roussel, who finished in a blistering time of 16:34.37, over a minute faster than Keeler’s mark.

Roussel also held the fastest preliminary mark early in the season, setting the lead time of 16:49.82 at London Western’s Bob Vigars Classic on May 26. This put Roussel at a leaderboard topping perfect score of 50 points.

Roussel was on top until the Ottawa Lions Twilight meet on June 12, where Keeler would begin her late climb to the top of the standings. The Arctics’ athlete ran a personal best of 16:42.32, claiming the top preliminary mark of the 2024 season just weeks ahead of the finals. 

With little time ahead of the July 6 CTFL final, Keeler was focused on giving her best performance of the year.

“It’s really doing all the little things, getting enough rest, eating right and just training hard,” Keeler said.

She returned to Ottawa’s Terry Fox Stadium – the track she recently laid down her personal best – for the final meet, determined to end the season a champion. Without Roussel or fellow Spitfire Ashley Maguire present for the meet, Keeler’s win over the season was certain, but she was nonetheless driven to earn as many points as possible to win the Arctics’ the team championship.

Despite Ottawa’s intense rain throughout the day of the finals, Keeler dominated the field as she flew around the soaked track through 12 and a half grueling laps. Even though she had the victory all but won, Keeler still put in her best effort.

“The goal coming in today was to try to score as many points as I could for my team, get the win and also try to get a PB,” Keeler said.

Crossing the line in 16:39.74, she completed all three of those goals as she took the gold and earned a maximum of 25 points for her Arctics on their road to CTFL glory.

Keeler showed grit in her final race of the season, despite running alone in less-than-ideal conditions with a near insurmountable lead, she still gave it everything she had to earn her new personal best. Keeler shared some key takeaways from her valuable CTFL experience after the race.

“Maintaining a positive mindset,” Keeler explained. “Obviously the conditions aren’t great, but you don’t want to get into a negative mindset – because if you start there, the race is already over.”