VU Athlete Profile: Keili Dorn

Vanguard’s Cross Country and Track & Field team brought on tons of new athletes. One of this year’s new athletes is Keili Dorn, a native Hawaiian who was born and raised in Kailua-Kona.

Head Cross Country and Track & Field Coach Wilkins brought her on with high expectations for the team’s mid-distance side of the track. Dorn originally focused solely in cross country for the majority of her high school career. She did cross country for three years in high school. “It made sense to run cross country because growing up my whole family would go on family runs and my soccer coaches always told me I was fast and had a lot of endurance” Dorn explains.

In high school, she was the girl’s team most valuable player. Dorn’s fastest 5K in high school was a time of 20:57. She has already dropped her 5K time by over 2 minutes since competing at Vanguard.

On Sept. 12 this semester, she made a new personal record of 18:26 at the UV Riverside Invitational. She ran in the top 20, out of 197 other runners. She also ran her first ever 6K with a quick time of 23:17 at the Pomona-Pitzer Cross Country Invitational on Oct. 3, 2015. At Pomona-Pitzer she led Vanguard women’s cross country team placing 36 out of 192 finishers.

When Dorn is off season for cross country she is in season for track and field. “I only participated in track and field in my senior year of high school because all the friends I made in cross country encouraged me to try it out” Dorn says, “I told myself I would only do it for fun and try all the different events.” Although she started doing track and field just for fun she began to take it more seriously, her competitive side took over and led her to great success later in her high school season.

In track and field she specializes in mid-distance events such as 800 meter run through the 3000 meter run. Her personal records are 2:21.96 in the 800 meter dash, 4:56.88 for the 1500 meter dash, and 10:51.96 in the 3000 meter run. Her times from high school under her Coach Brad Lachance are very well he coached her to winning the regional championship in the 800, 1500 and 3000 meter run.

Dorn is expected to be one of the top female runners for the cross country and track & field team here at Vanguard.  She was originally planning on going to Colorado State University after completing basic training in the Air National Guard and was not planning on running collegiately. Just before she made the commitment, she was accepted into Vanguard and was offered the opportunity to run collegiately. “It was a huge change and it came with a change in heart” she says, “my athletic trainer and coach always told me I should run in college, but I did not think it would be possible at a D1 school so I shook it off.”

After making contact with Coach Wilkins, admission staff, researching the university, and talking to now Vanguard Sophomore Andrew Crietz, she made her decision to attend Vanguard University. Dorn currently enjoys her time at Vanguard and all it has to offer being a student-athlete being at the University. She is majoring in history and political science and is still deciding on what she wants to do for a career.

Dorn is looking forward to becoming a better and more experienced runner here in college. She hopes to make it to Nationals this season which will be in Charlotte, North Carolina. She visualizes herself becoming a successful runner by the time she graduates.