Little Rock native and senior Kelton Ray has accomplished a lot in four years.

In May, he will graduate with a degree in public relations, along with several resume bullets, including Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity treasurer, President Leadership Fellow for President Tom Courtway, UCA ambassador, Resident Assistant and distance runner for the UCA men’s track and field team.

Ray graduated from Hall High School in Little Rock with a 4.0 GPA and, despite looking at other colleges, signed a recruitment deal with UCA Coach Richard Martin.

“I love to recruit quarter-milers,” Martin said, remembering what drew him to Ray as a junior in high school. “A 400-meter guy can run anything from 800 to 100.”

As a freshman, Ray said he wasn’t sure what he wanted to study until his composition professor advised him toward communications, not wanting Ray to waste talent.

After he graduates, Ray said he will begin work with PepsiCo, where he interned for the past two summers.

“Back in October, they offered me a full-time management and training position, so I’ll be training for about the next year and a half,” he said.

Despite a full workload, he said running 400 meters couldn’t compare.

“It’s hard,” he said with a laugh. “That’s the race that scares a lot of people in track, but that’s what I do on a daily basis. It’s tough, it’s fun, it’s rewarding, and we have a pretty good group of guys.”

Ray said he trains either four or five times a week for his runs, which has paid off numerous times, the most recent of which was at this past weekend’s meet on campus.

He topped the 400-meter heat 2 of 7 with a time of 48.92.

In a week, Ray said he works on 200s on Mondays, 300s on Tuesdays, volume training on Wednesdays, a light workout on Thursdays and utilizes travel on Fridays.

During the time he can pull away for himself, and aside from fraternity life, community service and finishing up his business administration minor, Ray said he enjoys working as a President Leadership Fellow — a program that started last semester.

Twenty-five students currently make up the program, all who serve as student representatives of the UCA president’s office and follow Courtway to events on and off campus.

Though he has many, Ray said one of his favorite memories at UCA happened Feb. 8 at the Southern Illinois University Invitational in Carbondale.

“When we ran, we broke the old school record by five seconds, so that was a pretty fun day,” he said.

In the 4×400 relay, Ray and two other students finished second with the fifth-best time in school history at 3:19.65.

“He’s a real hard worker,” Martin said of Ray. “He does what I ask him to do. He’s very understanding and asks questions if he doesn’t understand something. He’s a very smart young man. He’s going to do well in life.”

Ray also shares the 4×400 relay record at UCA with freshman Trevon Boyd, senior Chance Tanner and sophomore Darrell Johnson at 3:17.24.

Ray shares the 4×440 record with alumnus Sage Raphael, Tanner and alumnus Demarcus Harrison at 3:20.24.

The track team competes against Arkansas State University on April 25 in Jonesboro.

The men’s track team will finish conference play May 8-10 with the Southland Conference Outdoor Championship in Hammond, Louisiana.