Sept. 23, 2003

BALTIMORE, Md. -- The Johns Hopkins University football team, currently 3-0 and riding the crest of a seven-game winning streak, is ranked 23rd in this week's American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) Division III Coaches' Poll, which was released today. The ranking is the highest in school history, surpassing a number 26 ranking that the Blue Jays held for one week during the 2002 season. The Blue Jays were ranked 27th in last week's poll, which was the first poll of the 2003 season.

Johns Hopkins received 131 points in this week's poll to earn its program-best number 23 national ranking. The Blue Jays sit just behind Hardin-Simmons (TX), which received 175 points to rank 22nd, and just ahead of Wooster (OH), which had 122 points and ranks 24th. Johns Hopkins has regularly been among the schools receiving votes in the poll (teams ranked 26th and below) in the last two years and finished the 2002 season ranked 32nd after claiming a share of the Centennial Conference title and winning the ECAC Southwest Championship.

Johns Hopkins will carry its seven-game winning streak into this Saturday's game at Carnegie Mellon (3-0). The seven-game winning streak is tied for the longest in school history and is the longest active winning streak in the Centennial Conference and the longest active winning streak by a college football team in the state of Maryland. Johns Hopkins has won seven straight on four other occasions with the most recent seven-game winning streak covering the final two games of the 2001 season and the first five games of the 2002 season.

Under the guidance of 14th-year head coach Jim Margraff, the Blue Jay football program has enjoyed a great deal of success since 1990. Margraff ranks as the all-time winningest football coach in school history with a 78-52-3 (.598) record and the 78 games Johns Hopkins has won under Margraff's guidance in 13-plus seasons are one more than Hopkins won in the previous 20 seasons combined. Since the beginning of the 1995 season, the Blue Jays are 54-28-1 (.657).

AFCA Division III Coaches' Poll * Through Games of 9-20-03

1. Mount Union (OH) (45) 2-0 1,126

2. St. John's (MN) (1) 2-0 1,096

3. Rowan (NJ) 3-0 1,001

4. Linfield (OR) 2-0 997

5. Bridgewater (VA) 3-0 936

6. Wheaton (IL) 2-0 856

7. Wisconsin-La Crosse 3-0 836

8. Mary Hardin-Baylor(TX) 2-0 819

9. Brockport St. (NY) 3-0 805

10, John Carroll (OH) 2-0 680

11. Wittenberg (OH) 2-0 622

12, Ithaca (NY) 2-0 555

13. Wartburg (IO) 2-0 535

14. Wisconsin-Stevens Point 2-0 490

15. Springfield (MA) 3-0 463

16. Washington & Jefferson (PA) 2-0 417

17. Lycoming (PA) 2-0 398

18. Trinity (TX) 2-1 330

19. Baldwin Wallace (OH) 1-1 326

20. Wisconsin-Stout 1-1 312

21. Hampden-Sydney (VA) 2-0 291

22. Hardin-Simmons (TX) 1-1 175

23. Johns Hopkins (MD) 3-0 131

24. Wooster (OH) 2-0 122

25. Salisbury (MD) 2-0 72

Others Receiving Votes: St. Norbert-64, Pomona Pitzer-58, Bethel-45, Central-45, Millikin-44, Pacific Lutheran-32, Capital-40, College Of New Jersey-24, Hanover-21, Wabash-19, Western Connecticut-16, Augustana-13, Whitworth-13, Wisconsin Whitewater-12, Buena Vista-11, Muskingum-10, Simpson-9, Alma-8, Christopher Newport-7, King's-7, DePauw-6, Hope-6, Williams-6, St. John Fisher-5, Rensselaer-4, Dickinson-4, Concordia-4, Ferrum-3, Coe-3, Kalamazoo-2, Wisconsin-Oshkosh-1, Wisconsin-Platteville-1, Trinity (CT)-1.

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