Boise native Nathan Green wins second NCAA 1,500 title

BOISE, Idaho — This story originally appeared in the Idaho Press. 

Nathan Green is a national champion once again.

On Friday, the Borah High graduate once again collected a title at the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field in Eugene, Oregon, taking his second career title in the 1,500 meters. Green, who was running the last race of his University of Washington career, passed Washington’s Adam Spencer on the final turn, then held off a late charge from North Carolina’s Ethan Strand to win with a time of 3 minutes, 47.26 seconds.

It also marks the fourth straight year a Washington runner has won the title in the 1,500, with former teammate Joe Waskom winning in 2022 and ‘24.

“It all just came down to that final 80 meters, it was just a battle of wills,” Green said in a post-race news conference. “It means a lot because it was my last NCAA race. I’ve won this event before and winning it a second time, it means a lot. That makes Washington the most dominant 1,500 and mile program in history and anybody who says otherwise can go check the facts.”

Much like when he won his title in 2023, Green was trailing Spencer with 100 meters to go, but passed the Wisconsin runner on the final turn. Spencer had beat Green in the Big Ten Championships last month on the very same track.

“I just evolved as a racer,” Green said. “I kept praying for the opportunity to learn something from every race and I kept praying for the hardest path and for things to not just fall in my lap. And then today I prayed for the opportunity to show I’ve been working and it wasn’t for nothing. The difference for me between then and now is this is the culmination of all the lessons I’ve learned.”

But Green still had to finish even after passing Spencer. Strand was in the back of the 12-man field entering the final turn, but made a move on the outside to pass 10 of the runners.

The only one he was unable to pass was Green, who dove at the finish line, which caused him to take a tumble on the track once the title was secure, beating the second-place Tar Heel by .07 seconds.

“I was thinking back to what my coach said earlier in the day,” Green said about his finish. “He was saying ‘you’re probably going to need a 12.5 to win and you’re probably going to need to dive. Around 250 left when I started to press Spencer, he yelled at me to jump and I was like ‘that can only mean one thing.’ My whole process was ‘I got to go, I got to gun it.’ They were right there and I can’t falter for a second.”

Green said that after finishing his career at Washington, he was planning on staying in Seattle and beginning his professional racing career. He teased that he had signed with a company, but declined to say which one.

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