Winston-Salem, NC - For the first time in Johns Hopkins track & field history, a Blue Jay has earned an Indoor National Championship. With one jump remaining, Victoria Kadiri was a certain All-American for the second time in her young career. However, that last jump provided a special opportunity for something greater. Kadiri raced down the runway, soaring to a 5.91m long jump, setting a new program-record. More importantly, with that jump she became a champion.

    After the 2021 indoor season was canceled during Kadiri's freshman year, she had to wait a few months to burst onto the scene. She did just that, earning All-American honors as a freshman at the 2021 Outdoor Championships. Now a sophomore, Kadiri is already onto bigger and better things, as she can now proudly call herself the first indoor national champion in program history and the first overall since 2003. Kadiri's hit a mark of 5.66m on her third jump attempt, putting her in the top-five and in a comfortable spot to earn All-American honors. Her final jump of 5.91m blew past the second-place mark of 5.73m, leaving zero doubt in what Kadiri had accomplished. 

All Americans Amaze

• Joining Kadiri as an All-American on Friday evening is the athlete who has done it all for Johns Hopkins, graduate student Annie Gutierrez. The Coral Gables, FL product earned a pair of All-American nods, placing fifth in a highly competitive pentathlon and grabbing the eighth and final AA nod in the long jump. Gutierrez opened up the women's indoor pentathlon with a bang, crushing her previous program-record time of 8.82 in the 60m hurdles with a race-winning time of 8.71. Gutierrez totaled 971 points and sat in first-place after the event. Next up was the high jump with Gutierrez tying for fifth with a PR jump of 1.60m. The leap earned her 736 points. Gutierrez crushed her PR in the shot put as well, firing a 9.69m toss to grab 14th-place and 509 points. After just finishing up the long jump, Gutierrez was right back in the pit, placing third with a 5.45m jump, grabbing another 686 points. Back on the track for the final event, Gutierrez ran the 800 in 2:29.38, placing ninth in the event and earning 701 points to total 3,603 for the event. That total placed her fifth, making her an All-American and breaking her own program-record of 3,499 points. Gutierrez's jump of 5.55m in the open long jump earned her All-American honors. 
• Alex Ross made it three All-Americans on the day for Johns Hopkins, earning a fifth-place finish in the 5,000, marking her first career All-American honor. After a fantastic season that saw her qualify for the 3000 and 5000, Ross was able to earn a top-five finish in her second crack at the NCAA Championships. Ross qualified for the 5000 at 2021 Outdoors, putting on a strong showing, but coming up short of an All-American finish, but Ross had no trouble today, finishing in 16:54.33. Ross will compete again tomorrow, looking for double AA honors with the 3000. 

"The most successful first day we've had. So many great performances. The excitement and support has been through the roof. What Annie was able to accomplish today with so much going on was an inspiration to everyone and its really exciting to watch her lay it all out there" 

The Best Of The Rest

• Ella Baran will compete to bring another championship back to Johns Hopkins tomorrow after cruising to the two-seed in today's mile qualifier. Baran won her heat with a time of 5:01.52, setting her up for a run for a title tomorrow. Baran earned a pair of runner-up honors at 2021 Outdoors and is the DIII record holder in the mile. 
• After breaking out during the 2021 Cross Country season, Lina Spjut competed in her first career NCAA Track Championship event this afternoon. Spjut finished 13th in the tightly contested mile qualifiers, just missing the final with a strong time of 5:02.86. Spjut's time is just over 1.5 seconds shy of the final qualifying time. Spjut will get another crack at it tomorrow in the Jay filled 3000.
• After her outstanding performance in the pentathlon hurdles, Gutierrez narrowly missed qualifying for the 60m hurdles. Gutierrez placed 12th with a time of 8.85, .02 shy of the final qualifying spot. Gutierrez did not record a mark in the pole vault, passing until 3.75m, but failing to clear at that height. 
• Similarly to Spjut, Sydney Friedel started her ascension during the Cross Country season and found her way into a pair of events at NCAA Indoors. Friedel's first attempt fell just shy as she placed 14th in the 5000 with a time of 17:30.11. She will also run in the 3000 tomorrow. 
• The Blue Jay DMR placed 10th on Friday night as Sara Stephenson, Ashley Tyburski, Annie Huang and Diana Vizza combined for a time of 12:01.50. 

Team Performance

• The Jays sit with 19 total points after day one with six events fully scored in a tie for third with Wisconsin-La Crosse. Hopkins is in search of their first ever podium at the NCAA DIII Track Championships. 

Van Allen Corner
(On Victoria)

• Today was one of the most amazing moments in the history of our track & field program.
• Throughout the event you could Victoria gaining more and more confidence.
• We knew she had it in the tank and she finally got a good plant and got one out there.
• She really works hard and it was a great moment for her and the program.

(On Today's Performance Overall)

• Today was the most successful first day we've had at NCAA Track Championships.
• We had so many great performances and the excitement and support have been through the roof.
• What Annie was able to accomplish today with so much going on was an inspiration to everyone and its really exciting to watch her lay it all out there.