The Yellow Jackets were unable to compete at the Cedarville Open due to COVID-19 concerns and entered in the Rio Grande meet for additional seasoning needed for preparation of the conference championships.
Kelly earned his second conference athlete of the week honor after pacing Cedarville to a team win with six total schools in the field. He had additional help from three other teammates in the top 10 including Caleb Pendleton, Cooper Peterson and Braedon Killion.
The sophomore ran a 26:01.49 as he finished runner-up individually only to Jonah Phillips (Shawnee State).
Kelly is among the favorites to emerge as the possible conference runner of the year along with Walsh's Drew Roberts, another two-time recipient of athlete of the week status, and Malone's Zach Fresenko, a former conference freshman of the year.
Cedarville's cumulative time of 2:13:10.09 featured an average of 26:38.02. Tiffin was also third in the team scoring.
Kelly also won the first week of the season for his effort at the Taylor Invitational to open the fall.