Three Huskies finished in the top five of the women’s pole vault on Thursday, cementing 14.5 points for Washington and living up to expectations as the country’s No. 1 ranked pole vault program.
True freshmen twins Hana and Amanda Moll were No. 3 and No. 5, respectively, while senior Nastassja Campbell was fourth. Amanda made her first All-American team, Hana her second after winning the NCAA indoor title in March, and Campbell her eighth.
All three women entered the meet at the second height of 13-7 1/4. Campbell and Hana cleared on their first attempts while Amanda needed a second. It was the same story at 14-1 1/4, then all three made 14-5 1/4 on their first attempt.
Campbell set a season-best with the 14-5 1/4 clearance, but neither she nor Amanda could clear the 14-9 bar. Amanda tied with Baylor’s Molly Haywood for No. 5, while Campbell took sole possession of No. 4 due to the attempts tiebreaker.
Hana was one of three women, including Rutgers‘ Chloe Timberg and Charlotte’s Riley Felts, to clear 14-9. Timberg cleared each height on her first attempt, while the other two women needed two attempts at 14-9. Felts was able to clear 14-11 on her first attempt, as did Timberg. Moll missed her first attempt, then all three women passed to 15-1, where Timberg was the only one to clear the bar.
Timberg would eventually set a meet record of 15-5 1/2 on her way to the gold.
Elsewhere at the NCAA Championships, the Huskies had three other competitors after Wilma Nielsen scratched the 800 meter prelims.
Decathlete Jami Schlueter finished up the second and final day of the event, setting a career-best discus throw of 139-6 on his way to No. 10 overall. He represents the best finish by a Husky since Jeremy Taiwo in 2013.
Sophie O’Sullivan and Chloe Foerster were separated in the two heats of the 1500m, unlike the men’s trio on Wednesday. O’Sullivan ran first, navigating the fastest national semifinal in NCAA history. She stuck herself to a lead pack of Providence’s Shannon Flockhart, Florida’s Flomena Asekol, and Oregon’s Klaudia Kazimierska that separated late in the race.
Knowing that she had some room to spare with five auto-qualifying spots, O’Sullivan slowed down at the end, finishing closer to No. 5 finisher Melissa Riggins of Georgetown than the lead trio. Her 4:08.04 was still more than enough to send her to Saturday’s final.
Foerster struggled with the pace in the second heat, which ended up being just a hair slower than the first. Harvard’s Maia Ramsden controlled the pace from the front, pushing to a 4:06.00, more than a second in front of the No. 2 finisher. The early pace quickly dropped Foerster and Kiana Carter of Lipscomb off the back, and Foerster finished No. 22 overall, good for an All-America Honorable Mention.
Washington has only milers left in the final two days of the NCAA Championships, which continue Friday and Saturday. Nathan Green, Luke Houser, and Joe Waskom are in the men’s final on Friday. O’Sullivan will close the Huskies’ season with the women’s final on Saturday.