Chelsi Williams

George Jenkins HS, Lakeland, FL, c/o 2025
AthleticNET Bio

Chelsi Williams got her start in track because she wanted to be like her older brother. Initially she loved the long jump. At four years old, she jumped nine feet which at the time was a national record she recalls . 

As a third grader, she finished third in the Florida MS State championships with a 13-03 . By the sixth grade she won the event  with a 14-03 mark.

Her brother was doing the 100m, 200m and hurdles. She followed him everywhere and wanted to do those events too. At a track meet in Walt Disney World she got her chance to compete in the hurdles.

“I was about six years old when I did the 80 meter hurdles at Disney because anywhere else, they didn't have the hurdles for my age,” she says. “ I was pretty good at it and I loved it. I won most of the time that I ran.”

That year was her fifth grade year. She went on to win the 80 meter hurdles at  the AAU Club Championships in 12.34, and then finished second(12.13) at the USATF National JO Meet. 

In the sixth grade, she added the triple jump. She won the AAU nationals that year with a 36-03.5.

Her father, Curtis, has been working with her the entire time. He ran hurdles himself in the Army and is an Army ROTC instructor at her school, George Jenkins. “Chels” as she is called is in the Army ROTC program. She is a captain and  participates in the Raider program which is a more physical based squad within the ROTC program.  Obstacle courses, running and teamwork are the emphasis. She can do 12 pull ups and enjoys the physical nature of the program. She also likes the time spent with her father.

Having her father as her coach has a lot of benefits.

“We've been doing it for a long time so it's like clockwork,” she says of her practices with her dad. “We have more flexibility because we can decide when to work out. I'll ask ‘Dad, you want to work at nine today?’  And he's like, ‘yeah, sure.’”

At Jenkins, she has continued the success she started early on in all her events. Running in the largest classification in the state, Class 4A, she won the triple jump (39-10.75), the long jump 19-03), and finished runner up in the 100m hurdles(13.88) and the 300m hurdles (42.94) her freshman year. That was 36 of her runner-up team’s 43 points.

Nationally, she won the New Balance Nationals triple jump with a 38-04.25 and finished second at the Adidas Outdoor Nationals in the 100m hurdles(13.83) and the triple jump(39-10.75). 

This past year, she again participated in four events at the state meet. This time she finished second in the triple jump (39-01.75), won the long jump (19-05.75), won  the 100m hurdles(13.44) and in the 400m hurdles, a new event for Florida high schoolers, she ran 61.49. Again her team finished runner up and she scored 36 points, but her team’s overall score was higher with 48 points. The 13.44 came as a surprise. She was shuttling between jumping events prior to the 100m Hurdle finals leaving little time to rest and focus.

“I had no idea that I would run 13.4. Especially since I was kind of lacking in competition[ second place was 13.87]. I was thinking maybe a 13.6. That really surprised me. I was extremely happy.”

One of her best competitions this past season occurred in the postseason. At the New Balance Outdoor Nationals she  finished third with a mark of 41-01.75(+2.3). Her second through fifth jumps were all in the 40+ range before she uncorked her third place mark on her final jump. It was one of the rare times she had the opportunity to focus on one event and she came away with her best performance. 

“Yes, so that was one of the meets, I jumped my butt off,” she says of the competition. “.I usually don't take all my jumps, but that meet I did.  I was really aiming for top three or top two. We focused on our second phase in my jump. Usually I have four events, but this time I really  sacrificed everything  because I was focusing on the triple jump. We moved to a nine step approach and I put all of my mental capacity into it. I'm very satisfied with what I did at New Balance.”

With all these events she is good at, she does have a preference and knows that at some point she’ll have to focus on  a couple of events. 

“I think triple jump and hurdles are neck and neck for my favorite .I think I would rank the 100 hurdles as my favorite; second, triple jump; and third, is a tie between 400m hurdles and long jump,” she says. “ I'm planning on working more in the 400m hurdles and the long jump.  I'm planning on specializing in the 100 hurdles and triple jump, but I do need to work on my other two events. If I were to go to Nationals and compete in only one or two events, it'd be either the hurdles or triple jump.”