Harvard Women Run 10:37.55 To Break Villanova's 1988 Record, With Ramsden Splitting 4:21.47

By Keenan Gray of DyeStat

PHILADELPHIA – Harvard’s women’s distance medley relay team was one-hundredth of a second away from qualifying for the NCAA Division 1 Indoor Championships in March.

A month later, that same group ran themselves right into the record books Friday at Franklin Field.

Sophia Gorriaran, Chloe Fair, Victoria Bossong and Maia Ramsden collectively ran a new collegiate record in the distance medley in 10 minutes, 37.55 seconds on day two of the 128th Penn Relays, taking down Villanova’s 1988 collegiate and meet record of 10:48.38.

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“We had the same lineup indoors and we knew we could do it,” Ramsden said. “The DMR is tricky. Everybody’s got to be ready at the exact same time. We have different warmup routines and so to just be able to put it all together at the same time, on the same day, it was so special.”

Harvard managed to hold off a strong Providence team that also dipped under the collegiate and meet record, finishing in 10:39.04 for second.

Gorriaran, primarily an 800 runner, led off the Crimson with a 3:20.36 split on the 1,200, putting Harvard in seventh through the first leg with Providence and Virginia, who finished third in 10:48.55, ahead by five seconds.

On the 400 leg, Fair made up four spots with a 53.20 effort to put Harvard in third behind Providence and Virginia. Bossong maintained that position for the Crimson on the 800 leg, running 2:02.54.

When Ramsden received the baton from Bossong, the NCAA indoor mile champion went past Virginia and began closing in on Providence, anchored by Kimberley May, third in the NCAA indoor mile.

Through two laps of the 1,600 leg, Ramsden could feel the pace ramping up.

“I was really scared,” Ramsden said. “We were moving really quickly and I think we came through the 800 in like 2:11, and I was like, ‘woof, this is hard,’”

Right on the heals of May in the bell lap, Ramsden remained patient until she saw her coach, Alex Gibby, give her the signal to go at 300 to go.

A sprint to the finish is what it took for Ramsden to hold off May, clocking 4:21.47 on the 1,600 leg to May’s 4:23.68.

“When I make that move, I want it to be the end,” Ramsden said. “So, when I went with 300 to go, I was like, ‘I just go to finish at this point, like, can’t look back,’”

Virginia was within the collegiate and meet record but fell a couple of tenths short in 10:48.55 to place third overall.

Washington, the indoor collegiate record holders in the event, finished fourth in 10:53.26, with TCU behind in fifth in 10:53.34.

The Villanova men won their 26th men’s distance medley title at the Penn Relays in 9:35.90, adding to its record for most distance medley titles.

Liam Murphy anchored the 1,600 leg in 3:59.63, with Sean Dolan (3:00.27), Luke Rakowitz (47.67) and Dan Watcke (1:48.34) running strong legs for the Wildcats.

Georgetown, Virginia and Oregon all finished within a half-second of each other, with the Hoyas crossing in second in 9:36.37, the Cavaliers in third in 9:36.61 and the Ducks in fourth in 9:36.89.

The South Florida Bulls completed the 4x200 relay championship sweep, with the women repeating as champions in 1:33.19 over Duke and the men bouncing back from a 10th place finish at last year’s meet to win in 1:22.08 to sneak past Houston.

Clemson won the 1,600 sprint medley title on the women’s side for the first time since 2018, running 3:41.41 to beat Texas A&M.

The TCU men ran down Penn State over the final lap of the 800 leg to capture the 1,600 sprint medley relay crown in 3:18.71.