On the first of two days at the NCAA Division III Indoor Track and Field Championship, senior Cimran Virdi won her third-consecutive pole vault title with a facility record height of 13 feet, 6.5 inches (4.13 m).
It took Virdi only five jumps to win her third-straight title as she sealed it on her first attempt of the 13-feet, 1.5-inches (4.00-m) height after both she and top seeded Katherine Pitman from Ithaca College cleared the 12-feet, 11.5-inches (3.95-m) mark with ease. Pittman missed on her three attempts at the 4.00-m leap, which left the championship in the hands of Virdi — her third straight indoor pole vault national championship. In 16 years since the pole vault has been contested in the Division III Women's Championship, Virdi is the first student-athlete to win three-straight titles.
Virdi then passed on the 4.05-m height for a chance to break both the MIT indoor and facility record at 4.13-m, which she cleared on her very first attempt. The old MIT best of 16 feet, 6.25 inches (4.12 m) was set by Karin Fisher '11 at the ECAC Division III Championship back on March 5, 2011.
