Washington State's Rosemary Longisa wins national championship in 1,500

EUGENE - Rosemary Longisa entered Saturday's 1,500-meter national final as the top-ranked runner in the event, and the Washington State sophomore left no doubt, separating for a comfortable victory to claim her first NCAA championship and cement herself as a Cougar great.

Longisa didn't have her best performance in the sweltering Oregon heat, but still delivered a convincing victory at Hayward Field during the final day of the NCAA Outdoor Championships.

She paced the pack the whole way, then turned it up on the final stretch, breaking away by several strides and crossing the finish with a time of 4:12.10. She came in 0.79 second ahead of second-place Salma Elbadra of South Carolina.

"I'm so happy. It's like, I came here for a comeback, in a good way," Longisa told ESPN after the race. She had placed second nationally in the mile at the NCAA Indoor Championships in March.

The result was a fitting end to the season for WSU's young phenom from Kenya, who had been building up to this moment with a string of outstanding runs in recent months - none more impressive than her 4:02.55 finish during a meet in April in Southern California. That mark was the nation's best in the 1,500 this season, and the second-fastest time in the event in NCAA women's history.

She cruised to a first-place finish (4:06.41) in the national semifinal on Thursday, then became the first woman in WSU history to win the national title in the 1,500. Longisa is also the first Coug woman to win a national title in any event since 2003, and her championship was the fourth overall in WSU women's program history. And with two more seasons left, there's still plenty of time for Longisa to win more.

In the day's next event, University of Idaho junior Constanze Paoli placed 11th in the women's 3,000-meter steeplechase national final with a time of 10:08.28.

BYU's Taylor Lovell won the title with a time of 9:21.03.

Paoli won the Big Sky championship in the event with a program-record time, then broke her record on Thursday in the national semifinals, placing 10th overall with a time of 9:44.85 to qualify for the final.

Later Saturday evening, Rosina Machu concluded her record-breaking Gonzaga career with a 21st-place finish in the 5,000-meter final. The Boise product clocked a time of 15:59.25.

Alabama's Doris Lemngole won in 15:11.71.

Machu, who finished 11th in the 10,000-meter national final on Thursday, leaves GU with program records in both events and five All-America honors, the most for any woman runner in Zags history.

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This story was originally published June 13, 2026 at 7:13 PM.