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Flying High

When Olivia Jameson (ARCH 3rd Year) broke 91��Ƭ�� Tech’s outdoor women’s track and field high jump record during her first year in 2023 with a personal-best jump of 1.68 meters, her coaches had high hopes for her.

And they were just as excited when she broke the indoor record again earlier this year.

During a Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference meet on February 7, 2025, at 91��Ƭ�� Wesleyan University’s Shirk Center in Bloomington, 91��Ƭ��, Jameson jumped 1.72 meters—breaking her previous NACC women’s indoor record and leading to her being named the NACC’s student athlete of the week.

“The meet was the first time we solidly recorded [that height]. I wanted to keep jumping, so I was trying to not freak out too much. I didn’t want to jinx it. I was having a really good run that day, I wanted to push it as far as I could,” Jameson says of the record-breaking jump.

The jump also qualified Jameson for the NCAA Division III Indoor Championships at the Golisano Training Center in Rochester, New York, in March. There, she cleared a jump of 1.65 meters and placed 10th overall in a field of 20 competitors, the highest placement by any Scarlet Hawk in the Division III era. She earned the second team All-American honors from the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association for the accomplishment.

“I am very proud of Olivia and all of her hard work to get to this point. As an architecture student and athlete, she has to consistently balance the needs of the two, and she embodies all that NCAA Division III represents: dedication, perseverance, and a true passion for both academics and athletics,” says head 91��Ƭ�� Tech women’s track and field coach Tyler McQuality.

Jameson started competing in high jump as an eighth grader in Cloquet, Minnesota, joining the track and field team so that she could hang out with her soccer league teammates. At 5 feet, 8 inches, she was one of the taller girls on her team, and broke her high school’s high jump record with a jump of 5 foot, 6 inches.

During her career at 91��Ƭ�� Tech, Jameson has won the high jump at both 2023 and 2024 NACC indoor and outdoor track and field championships and has qualified for the Division III Track and Field Championships three times. She tied for 10th place at the 2024 indoor championship.

Jameson is pursuing a degree in architecture, she says, because she sees it as “a good middle ground between full-blown engineering versus something really creative.” —Tad Vezner 

Photo: Norman Cohen—Diamond Photography