#3 | Race of 2015

No. 5 | No. 4 | No. 3 | No. 2 | No. 1

Unlike the four other finalists in our Race of the Year category, the 2015 womenÂ’s NCAA 1500m final wasnÂ’t one of the most significant moments of the year. 

In fact, thereÂ’s a decent chance that youÂ’ve forgotten what happened in this race entirely. The winner wasnÂ’t a marquee name, and letÂ’s face it, itÂ’s been over six and a half months since it happened. A lot of things couldÂ’ve easily clouded your memory from then until now. 

Even so, that doesn’t diminish how exciting of a battle it was that went down on June 13th between Arizona State’s Shelby Houlihan and Mississippi State’s Rhianwedd Price. It’s that excitement— plus the element of surprise— that secured the race’s destiny for this all-important end-of-year nomination. And since you’ve forgotten, here’s a quick refresher:

Price mowing down defending NCAA champ and favorite Houlihan was a solid upset. The Arizona State senior hadnÂ’t lost a 1500 since the 2013 NCAA final (not counting prelim races), and conversely, Price had never even won a conference title when she toed the line in Eugene. She was beaten in the SEC final just a month earlier by over three seconds. 

30 days later she was a NCAA champion after beating the reigning NCAA champion. What is life. 

When Houlihan won the 2014 NCAA 1500, Price wasnÂ’t even in the race, as she failed to qualify out of the East prelim. So yeah, this was a pretty big deal. To be clear, however, there were signs that Price was about to bust off a big one. The biggest of those signs was her NCAA-leading 4:10 just a few weeks prior at prelims, with her 4:11 from April also being pretty great as well.

But Houlihan, though. Or at least we thought. All the way until the final 50 meters.

The 2014 champ led the entire race like the favorite she was, and with 200m to go she held a slight advantage over Price. Just seconds later, it was looking like Houlihan had it in the bag. This was still the case with 100m left to run. But Price, head bob Â’n all, was about to steal HoulihanÂ’s bag and she didnÂ’t even see it coming. It was straight up robbery. 

Even I didn’t see it coming. “Shelby Houlihan is going to defend her title, and it’s going to be a quick time,” I said confidently. At least I got the second part right. But seriously, the final 50m was crazy for sure.

See, Price had one last gear to use up, and Houlihan, well, no one told her. Her reaction was Price-less (pun intended).



The fastest NCAA final since Â’08 and an upset punctuated by an epic kick. It all adds up to our #3 Race of 2015, in case you forgot.

WATCH THE 2015 WOMEN'S NCAA 1500m FINAL HERE