BIRMINGHAM, AL – The Johns Hopkins women's track team earned a pair of second-place finishes and totaled 20 points on the first day of the 2026 NCAA Division III Indoor Track Championships at the Birmingham Crossplex on Friday.
 
With its 20 points, the Blue Jays sit in second place in the team standings as Centre grabbed the top spot with 25 points on day one.  Williams (19 points), Wisconsin-La Crosse (17.5) and MIT (16.5) round out the top five in the team standings entering the second and final day of competition on Saturday.
 
Seniors Erika Ezumba and Phoebe Williams picked up 11 of the 20 points Johns Hopkins rang up on day one as they placed second and sixth, respectively, in the Weight Throw.  With their finishes, Ezumba and Williams earn Indoor All-America honors for the first time in their careers.
 
Ezumba's runner-up finish was locked up on her sixth and final throw, which covered 19.90 meters (65' 3.5").  The throw broke her own previous school record of 19.17 meters (62' 10.75"), a mark she had hit earlier this season.  Ezumba broke her previous school record on her fourth throw as well (19.18 meters) before resetting the mark with her final throw of the day.
 
Williams also marked a personal-best as she earned her sixth-place finish on the third of her six throws, which hit at 17.93 meters (58' 10").  Prior to today, Williams had topped the 17-meter mark just once in her career, but she went over that distance on two of her attempts on Friday.

The Blue Jays would close the day with a runner-up finish in the Distance Medley Relay as the team of Ani Wedemeyer, Lianne Saussy, Diana Valentini and Mackenzie Setton crossed in 11.36.65 to grab silver. 
 
The mark, which broke the previous school record by nearly four seconds (11:40.38), was fueled by four strong legs as Wedemeyer covered the first 1200 in 3:35.30 and Saussy followed with a 56.95 in the 400 leg.  Valentini then turned in a 2:11.73 to move the Blue Jays past Wartburg into second place and Setton locked up the runner-up finish with a 4:52.69 mile in the closing leg.
 
Johns Hopkins picked up its final point of one day one from freshman Mia Kotler, who placed eighth in the 5000 as she crossed in 16:54.78.  She was the top freshman finisher in the race and was joined in the top 16 by teammates Carter Brotherton (12^th / 17:03.26) and Adriana Catalano (16^th / 17:17.95).
 
Setton and Emma Kothari both turned in exceptional performance in the Mile to advance to Saturday's final.  In a field of 20 with the top 10 advancing to the championship final, Setton placed first with a time of 4:49.60, while Kothari crossed in 4:51.13 to advance as well; the times for both were career bests.
 
Sophomore Claudia Ouimet narrowly missed grabbing a team point in the Pentathlon as she placed ninth with 3,547 points.  Ouimet's point total is a career-best and the fourth-best total in program history.
 
Rounding out the Blue Jays who competed on day one were junior Chloe Zhang (Long Jump), senior Mirra Klimov (60-meter dash) and Wedemeyer (800-meter run).  Zhang placed 12^th in the Long Jump (5.48-meters / 17' 11.75"), while Klimov (19^th) and Wedemeyer (10^th) did not advance to Saturday's finals in their events.

The championships will close on Saturday with 11 events.  The Blue Jays will be represented in three of the 11 (Mile, 3000, Shot Put).

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