St. Joseph's College Junior Makes History, Qualifies for NCAA Division III Indoor Track Championships

Three-tenths of a second separated Haytham Ramadan from the national stage last spring. He did not let that margin define him.

The St. Joseph's College junior from Deering High School in Portland traveled to Birmingham, Alabama on March 13-14 as the first Monks athlete in program history to qualify for the NCAA Division III Indoor Track and Field Championships, competing in the men's 800-meter run. He also became only the second athlete from the Great Northeast Athletic Conference to reach the indoor national meet, according to the Portland Press Herald.

"My mindset really changed this year," Ramadan said. "I wanted to do more, more than conference, more than New Englands. I reached out for higher goals."

Originally from Khartoum, Sudan, Ramadan built his qualifying case meet by meet across the indoor season, winning the 800 at the BU John Thomas Terrier Classic in 1:56.95, the GNAC Indoor Championship in 1:59.70, and the Mule Tune-Up on February 21 in 1:55.05. The arc of those times tells the story of an athlete accelerating toward something bigger. At the Tufts Final Qualifier on March 7, he ran 1:51.99 to place second and set the Monks' program record in the event, per the Press Herald. His seeded time for nationals, converted for a banked track, came in at 1:50.41, tied for fifth best in the field.

At the NCAA championships, Ramadan ran 1:52.71 to place seventh in his preliminary heat, then returned for the final and clocked 1:51.41, finishing fifth overall, according to meet results from the TFRRS athlete database. His college-best in the 800, per TFRRS, stands at 1:50.79.

The backdrop to all of it was last year's outdoor season, when Ramadan missed qualifying for the NCAA Division III outdoor championships by exactly three-tenths of a second. That near-miss sharpened his focus heading into the winter.

"It feels amazing," Ramadan said. "I'm really privileged to be in this state and be in this position right now to represent St. Joe's."

Monks coach Mike Burleson has watched Ramadan's development closely and sees a runner whose physical gifts match his ambition. "Haytham has a natural, given talent for the 800," Burleson said. "He has natural speed, and he has natural developable endurance. He's very clean as far as running goes. His form is very good, and he's very smooth."

Ramadan was among several athletes with Maine connections competing in Birmingham. Ryker Paradis and Zoe Barnes, both of the University of Southern Maine, competed in the shot put on Saturday. Barnes, a fifth-year student and New Gloucester native, threw 46 feet, 11 3/4 inches to win the Little East Conference championship, a mark that ranks fourth-best in Division III. She also won the Division III New England title and earned both the LEC Field Athlete of the Year award and the Lynn Ruddy Women's Field MVP at the Maine State Meet. Barnes is a two-time national discus qualifier for the NCAA outdoor championships.

For St. Joseph's, a small Catholic liberal arts college in Standish, Ramadan's fifth-place finish in the national final represents a threshold crossed. No Monks runner had ever stood on that start line before.