Hopkins Cruises to 15th Consecutive Centennial Conference Title

COLLEGEVILLE, PA – The Johns Hopkins women’s outdoor track team closed out its 15^th consecutive Centennial Conference title on Sunday at Ursinus as the Blue Jays rolled up 338.5 points to easily outdistance runner-up Dickinson, which totaled 125.5 points.  Swarthmore (109 points), Ursinsu (66.5) and Franklin & Marshall (47) rounded out the top five in the final team standings.

The 338.5 points the Blue Jays rolled up shatter the previous Centennial Conference record of 281.5, which Johns Hopkins set a year ago.  In addition, the title this season is the sixth of the 15 that the Blue Jays have won at Ursinus.

In addition to the team title, the Blue Jays also nabbed the Outstanding Field Performer of the Meet in junior Erika Ezumba.

 

Johns Hopkins added seven gold medals on Sunday to help fuel its run final-day surge.  First-place finishes and top performances in those events on the final day of the three-day championship included:

 

• Erika Ezumba (Shot Put) – The first of Ezumba’s six attempts went for 12.10-meters, which would have been good enough for third at the end, but she added tosses of 12.85-meters on her fourth attempt and what proved to be the winning mark of 12.92-meters on her sixth and final toss.  She adds her first-place showing in the shot put to her previous gold medal in the hammer throw.  Phoebe Williams added a fourth-place finish in the shot put with a toss of 11.55-meters.
  
   
• 4×100-Relay – The Blue Jays’ 4×100-relay team of Mirra Klimov, Lianne Saussy, Anna Zinsser and Lauren Phillips set Johns Hopkins, Centennial Conference a CC Championship meet records and punched up the 25^th-best time in the nation to date as they crossed in 47.30 seconds to beat runner-up Bryn Mawr by nearly two seconds.
  
   
• Annie Huang (1500) – Huang led a dominant performance in the 1500-meter run as the Blue Jays grabbed the top four spots and nine of the top 10 finishers, including seven of eight scoring positions. Huang eased to a first-place finish in 4:31.84 and she was followed closely by Emma Kothari (4:34.02), Harrinee Senthilkumar (4:34.53) and Adriana Catalano (4:35.63).  In all, the Blue Jay grabbed 35 of the 39 team points available in the event.  This is the third consecutive year and the ninth time overall that JHU has produced the 1500-meter champion.
  
   
• Lauren Phillips (400) – Phillips claimed her third consecutive 400-meter title and the seventh title in the event all-time for Johns Hopkins as she was 1.36 seconds ahead of Dickinson’s Maddie Brown when she crossed in 56.48.  Ryan Bigelow added a fifth-place finish with a season-best time of 1:01.06.
  
   
• Mirra Klimov (100) – For the fourth consecutive year and the 11^th time in program history, the Blue Jays produced the 100-meter champion as Klimov as she clocked a personal-best 12.06 seconds to grab gold. Ellie Lewis (3^rd / 12.53), Anna Zinsser (4^th / 12.63) and Claire Wang (6^th / 12.76) rounded out the four scoring runners for Johns Hopkins.
  
   
• Aisling Callahan (5000) – In a race she never trailed, Callahan crossed in 17:44.61 to beat runner-up Liza Barbash of Dickinson by just under six seconds.  The title is the second straight in the event for Callahan, who joins Elle Clawson (2017, 2018) as the only two-time champions among Johns Hopkins’ 13 all-time 5,000-meter gold medalists.
  
   
• 4×400-Relay – Johns Hopkins closed out its title in style as the Blue Jays won the final event of the championship – the 4×400-meter relay – by more than 10 seconds.  The team of Lauren Phillips, Annie Huang, Harrinee Senthilkumar and Lianne Saussy crossed in a meet-record time of 3:49.28.  The time, the second-best in Johns Hopkins history, also ranks 18^th in the nation this season.

  In addition to events in which the Blue Jays produced the champion, they also got four runner-up finishes to lead the way in four other events.  Williams placed second in javelin (33.64-meters), Sara Bartlett (11.66-meters) added a bronze in the triple jump, Lorna Arcese (1:05.96) was the runner-up in the 400-meter hurdles and Lewis was second in the 200 (25.46).

The final medal on the day for Johns Hopkins came in the 800-meter run from sophomore Lily Tremba (2:18.41), who grabbed bronze.