Maia Ramsden makes history claiming NCAA’s 1500m title
Over the weekend in Austin Texas, Wellington athlete Maia Ramsden made history for Harvard University and NZ athletes winning the NCAA 1500m title with an excellent tactical race to upset more favoured athletes and previous titleholder Katelyn Tuohy.
Ramsden qualified in the heats with a strong finishing kick in a personal best time of 4:09.81 to place 2nd before running the final in another personal best 4.08.60 ranking her 6th on NZL all time list and surpassing her previous best of 4:11.73 set back in April and the 4.12.46 that she ran when placing 10th in the 2022 NCAA final. It surpasees Anne Hare’s Wellington record time set back in 1985 of 4.10.59
Ramsden joins select company in NZ athletics as winners of NCAA titles. Hammer champion Julia Ratcliffe also captured an NCAA track and field title for another Ivy league college, Princeton University in 2014, while Nick Willis and Geordie Beamish have captured indoor mile titles in 2005 and 2019 respectively.
Maia was New Zealand Under18 1500m title holder in 2020 in Christchurch and was awarded Athletics Wellington’s Under 20 Distance athlete of the Year in 2020 and previously overseas athletes of year in 2018 while living abroad.
Read more about Maia at Harvard Athletics Here or tune into this podcast last June LINK
