National Championships
1989
Indoor Long Jump (24'11 1/4")
Indoor Triple Jump (52'0 3/4")
Outdoor Long jump (25'5 1/4")
Outdoor Triple jump (54'4 3/4")
1990
Indoor Long Jump (24'10")
Indoor Triple jump (52'10")
Outdoor Triple jump (53'2 3/4")
Jan Cado '93 had already earned international acclaim as a triple jumper prior to enrolling at North Central College in the fall of 1988. The native of the Slovak Republic (formerly Czechoslovakia) placed sixth at the 1983 World Championships in the event with a leap of 17.04m in Helsinki, Finland.
He was a silver medalist at the 1985 European Indoor Championships in Athens, Greece, with a mark of 17.23m. and became the Czechoslovakian national champion in 1986 (17.04m). Cado became the record holder in the triple jump for Czechoslovakia and qualified for the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles but was unable to compete due to political boycotts.
In 1987, he attended the first World Indoor Track and Field Championships in Indianapolis, Ind., and defected to the United States. By the time he graduated from North Central in 1993, he had rewritten the Cardinal record books. In only two years of competition, he was a 10-time All-American. Cado was the national champion at the 1989 NCAA Division III Indoor Championships in the long and triple jumps with marks of 24-11 (Division III record) and 52-00 . He repeated the feat at the 1989 NCAA III Outdoors with marks of 25-05 and 54-04 (a Division III record that still stands), respectively.
In 1990, Cado again captured national titles in the long and triple at the NCAA III Indoors with marks of 24-10 and 52-10 (a Division III record that still stands). At NCAA III Outdoors later that year, he won the triple jump with a 53-02 . He also garnered All-American honors in 1989 and 1990 as part of North Central's 4x100 meter relay team. In indoor track, Cado holds North Central varsity records in both long (24-11 in 1990) and triple (56-05 in 1990) jumps as well as the outdoor records in both events (25-06 in long jump in 1990; 56-05 in triple in 1990). He also holds the Merner Field House records for both long (25-04 in 1991) and triple jump (53-06 in 1991) as well as the Buikema Track record in the triple jump (55-08 in 1990). Cado would also hold the Buikema Track record in the long jump were it not for a Willingboro High School (N.J.) freshman named Carl Lewis who posted a 26-06 in 1979 and later went on to Olympic fame.
