Maggie Ramsey ran on the big stage throughout high school and will do that in the future.

The Mexico senior signed with William Woods University track and field and cross country and held her signing ceremony on Monday at the Mexico Sports Complex. Ramsey is a four-time cross country state qualifier and recently won the North Central Missouri Conference girls 3200 championship.

Maggie Ramsey Signing Photo Gallery

“I’ve seen the campus multiple times,” Ramsey said. “It’s close but not too close. The running environment and just the environment in general seem really good there.”

Ramsey said Lucas Breneman, Mexico cross country head coach and track assistant coach, ran at William Woods, so she has visited the campus several times because of that. She thought she would be comfortable there like she has been at Mexico.

“The cross country people feel like a family,” Ramsey said. “Everyone knows each other. Everyone gets to know each other, especially because there is one dining hall. We’ll see each other a lot, and I’ll get to know the people I’m running with more.”

Breneman said Ramsey has demonstrated consistency and has been thorough in her preparation. That showed when she was selecting her college until Ramsey ultimately selected William Woods, where she will major in criminal justice. 

“She is very prepared to run at the next level,” Breneman said. “She has shown it through consistency over the years. I think it will be an easy transition for her. The thing I really like about what she did is she took her time with her choice. She looked at multiple colleges and decided on staying close to home for, at least, year one.”

Ramsey is someone who has run plenty of miles during the summer and has been rewarded with good 5K times, Breneman said. While boys transition from the 5K to the 8K in college, girls stick with the 5K, so Breneman believes this will benefit Ramsey.

She ran her best 5K state time on the Gans Creek course this year with a 35th-place time of 20:08.06. Also this season, Ramsey recorded her personal-best time of 20:04.07.

“With the times that she has run, if she improves just a little bit, she’ll be right in there with the girls team,” Breneman said. “I wouldn't be surprised to see her in the top seven next year as a freshman.”

Ramsey said she is most proud of running at the state cross country meet all four years. She tried to exhibit “hard work and discipline” with her practice during the summer and this would culminate every year at districts in her goal of making the cut for state.

“That was something special that I never would have fully thought would have happened before I came to high school,” Ramsey said. 

Many repetitions help in various sports, and running is no different. Ramsey said this just boils down to doing more running without taking too much time to rest. 

“If you dedicate yourself to that and work on getting faster, it will work with consistency,” Ramsey said. “If you take off a couple days, it’s harder to get back on track.”

Breneman calls Ramsey “a gamer” and admits it can be “a blessing and a curse” of having someone like Ramsey on the team. While the other girls can learn by Ramsey’s example, he said Ramsey is so fast that it could discourage as well. For the most part, Breneman hopes the others notice Ramsey’s work ethic and try to live up to that. 

“You always want your underclassmen to say, ‘I want to be like her’ and pick up some of her habits,” Breneman said. “You always want those younger kids to see how good they are and what it takes to be good.”

As for the future, Ramsey is unsure of her career goals but knows for certain that she wants to be a better runner.

“For running, my goals are just to get new PRs and get new accomplishments,” Ramsey said.