BIRMINGHAM, AL – The Johns Hopkins women's indoor track team grabbed an individual national title and a runner-up finish on the final day of the 2023 NCAA Division III Indoor Track Championships; the two finishes, plus another All-America showing, pushed Hopkins' two-day total to 33 points and that was just enough to earn a fourth-place finish in the final team standings.  This is the second consecutive fourth-place finish for the Blue Jays, who trailed only Wisconsin-La Cross (59.5), Washington-St. Louis (54) and Loras (40) in the final team standings.
 
The Blue Jays' run to their second straight top-four finish came on the strength of another remarkable performance from junior Victoria Kadiri, who entered the second day of championships with her place in Blue Jay history already firmly cemented.   After her record-breaking jump to claim the national title in the triple jump on Saturday, she's quickly putting her name among the all-time greats nationally as well.
 
Having repeated as the national champion in the long jump on the opening day of the championships, Kadiri left little doubt who the premier jumper in the nation is on day two.  Competing in the second of two flights in the triple jump, Kadiri fouled on her first of six attempts and then marked at 12.66-meters (41'-06.5") on her second.  She then launched herself into Division III history with a remarkable jump of 13.18-meters (43'-03") – a jump that shattered the previous national record of 12.77-meters (41'10.75") that had stood since 1995.
 
To put Kadiri's performance in perspective, consider …
 
• Her winning jump was 19.75" longer than the previous national record, which had stood for 28 years.
• Her second-best jump of the day, which came on her sixth and final attempt, covered 13.01-meters (42'-08.25") and also would have shattered the previous national record by just under a foot.
• With fouls on two of her six attempts, Kadiri had four countable jumps … all four would have won the national championship as the runner-up, Ebunoluwa Opata of Washington-St. Louis, topped out at 12.44-meters (40'-09.75").
 
With a sweep of the long and triple jumps this weekend and three previous individual national titles to her credit, Kadiri now has five individual national championships on her resume.  The five titles ties Ana Bogdonvski (women's swimming / 2012-15) for most individual national championships by at Johns Hopkins female student-athlete.
 
It wasn't all about Kadiri on the final day of the championships as the other half of Hopkins' season-long dynamic duo, sophomore Lauren Phillips, placed second in the 400-meter dash to add eight valuable team points to the team total.  Phillips qualified for the finals on Friday with the fifth-fastest time (56.51), but shaved more than a second off that time as she crossed in 55.47 to earn her silver medal.
 
Phillips grabbed a second All-America honor on the final day as she placed eighth in the 60-meter dash after finishing in 7.75 seconds.  The eighth-place finish earned one team point for the Blue Jays.  As it turned out, that one point was the difference between Johns Hopkins grabbing fourth-place to themselves in the team standings as Mount Union placed fifth with 32 points.

In addition to Kadiri and Phillips' exploits on Saturday, senior Sara Stephenson in the 3,000-meter run with a time of 9:54.60 to place 14th.