When Elvis Forde was looking for someone to build his track program, he returned to his roots, the island nation of Barbados, to find that cornerstone.
Whom he found was Ayesha Maycock, the Christ Church, Barbados, native who starred at Combermere. Forde knew he had something special but just didn’t know how special. He was soon to find out.
She came to APSU in Spring 1998 and in her first outdoor track campaign placed her name in the record book nine times. On top of that, she won four medals and contributed 31 points in her first Ohio Valley Conference outdoor championship.
Maycock was the definition of versatility for a program that was short in numbers. Forde asked her to compete in practically anything and everything. She competed in the long, triple and high jumps in addition to the 400 meters, 400-meter hurdles, the distance medley, the 4 x 100-meter relay, the 4 x 400-meter relay, the 4 x 200-meter relay. She also ran anything from the 100-meter dash to the 5,000-meter. There were times when she was even entered into the shot put and discus events.
Although all her training basically was in the jumps and short - to - mid-distance events, Maycock was asked by Forde to join the cross country team. After an initial wide-eyed look, she attacked it with the same passion she trained for her specialities.
As a result, Maycock finished among her team’s top four in almost every meet, a tremendous accomplishment for a first-time participant.
But it was her track and field talents, especially in the long and triple jumps, that separated her from her peers. Maycock won three straight OVC indoor and two outdoor long jump championships and single indoor and outdoor triple jump titles. She left APSU holding the University record in both events, indoor and outdoor.
Remarkably, she helped lead the Lady Govs to the 2001 OVC Indoor championship, a stunning achievement considering the roster size of the Lady Govs and the fact the previous year APSU finished fifth with just 66 total points. She, along with Sheena Gooding, was named OVC Indoor Track Co-Female Athlete of the Year, as APSU outdistanced Tennessee State by 18 points, 127-109 for the championship.
That weekend Maycock won both the long and triple jumps and was a member of the winning 4 x 400-meter relay team. She also finished fourth in the 400-meter run and was a member of the fifth-place distance medley relay team. She was accountable for 39 of the 127 points.
Maycock twice was (1998-99, 1999-00) named APSU’s Most Outstanding Female Athlete and, in 2000-01 was the recipient of the prestigious Female Joy Award, as APSU’s most valuable senior athlete.
But her exploits extended far beyond track and field. She was a six-time nominee for academic All-America and three times was selected Verizon Academic All-District Spring At-Large and once for the Verizon Academic All-District Fall At-Large team. It culminated when she was named first-team Academic All-America Spring At-Large in 2001. She was Austin Peay’s first first-team Academic All-American since baseball’s Kevin Smith earned such distinction in 1994.
In addition, she was the recipient of the prestigious OVC Scholar-Athlete Award for 2000-01, presented to only three females and males a year. As a senior, she also received the APSU Scholar-Athlete Award. She received the NCAA Postgraduate Enhancement Scholarship and was APSU’s nominee for the NCAA Woman of the Year.
A business management major, she graduated magna cum laude with a 3.86 grade-point average.
