Stabhochsprungkraft! Huskies sweep top spot in pole vault at Big Tens...

INDIANAPOLIS--Stabhochsprungkraft (pole vault power)!

In its maiden voyage into the Big Ten Indoor Track & Field Championships, the Washington Husky men's and women's track teams made a statement in sweeping the top spot in both the women's and men's pole vault Friday at Fall Creek Pavilion on the Indiana State Fairgrounds.

For the second meet in a row, Amanda Moll (Tyler Artis/UW Athletics photo) broke the collegiate record in the women's pole vault, clearing 16-1.25 (4.91m), while twin sister Hana, the reigning NCAA indoor champ, finished second with a personal best of 15-9.25 (4.81m).

Both entered the competition at 14-3.5 (4.36m), and ended the competition by clearing 14-11.5 (4.56m), with Illinois' Tori Thomas the only one to attempt the height, after clearing the previous bar of 14-7.5 (4.46m).

Surprisingly, defending NCAA outdoor champ Chloe Timburg of Rutgers was eliminated at 14-7.5 after clearing the previous height of 14-3.5 (4.36m).

Once everyone else was eliminated, Hana had the early advantage, clearing 15-3.5 (4.66m) on her first attempt, while Amanda needed two tries.

After both made 15-7.25 (4.76m) and 15-9.25 (4.81m) on their first tries, Hana, who cleared her personal best at 15-9.25, missed all three tries at 16-1.25 (4.91m), which would have made her the fifth American to clear 16 feet (Demi Payne cleared 16-0.75/4.83m in 2016, but is not recognized due to a drug suspension that season), along with Jenn Suhr (16-6; 5.03m), Sandi Morris (16-4.75; 5.00m); Katie Moon (16-2.75; 4.95m), and Amanda (16-0/4.88m).

Amanda made 16-1.25 (4.91m) on her first attempt to take the victory, then took three good shots at 16-4.75 (5.00m), a height only world record holder Yelena Isinbayeva, Suhr, Anzhelika Sidorova, and Morris have cleared.

To open the long day of competition, grad student Scott Toney (photo courtesy Big Ten Conference) won the men's pole vault with a first attempt clearance at 18-2.5 (5.55m), as he was the only competitor to clear 18 feet.

The men's distance medley relay team of Leo Daschbach, Bodi Ligons, Cole Lindhorst, and Nathan Green easily won the race, setting a meet record 9:31.75.

In other finals, Acer Iverson was fourth in the men's 5000, running 13:48.09, and Jamar Distel was eighth in 13:52.11.

The women's distance medley relay team of Mia Cochran, Mikayla Gardley, Claire Yerby and Julia David-Smith was fifth in 11:10.09.

In a bit of a surprising development, Prestin Artis was eleventh in the long jump, only managing 23-10.75 (7.28m). Most importantly, Artis may find himself on the outside looking in when the NCAA qualifying period ends after this weekend's meets. He is currently number 18 on the NCAA descending order list at 25-8 (7.82m).

Jami Schlueter stands third after day one of the heptathlon with 3140 points, 110 points behind leader Rafael Raap of Illinois, the former Oregon standout.

Schlueter's marks include a 7.01 in the 60, 23-2.75 (7.08m) in the long jump, 43-3.75 (13.20m) in the shot put, and 6-4.25 (1.94m) in the high jump.

After five of 18 events, the Washington men stand third with 26 points, behind defending Big Ten champion Wisconsin's 33 and Oregon with 29.

After six events, Washington is fourth with 22 points, as Illinois leads with 50 points, followed by Oregon at 42, and Minnesota with 26.

Qualifiers for Saturday's finals for the Huskies:

--w 800:Chloe Foerster 2:03.71 (1), Amina Maatoug 2:05.22

--m 800: Kyle Reinheimer 1:47.03, Justin O'Toole 1:48.44

--m Mile: Ronan McMahon-Staggs 3:59.65, Rhys Hammond 3:59.82, Martin Barco 3:59.91, Cole Lindhorst 4:00.45, Leo Daschbach 4:10.69

--w Mile: Maggie Liebich 4:45.17.

Several Huskies are entered in the men's and women's 3000m finals, including Nathan Green, the conference leader at 7:40.09, and Amina Maatoug, who leads at 8:46.20. Maatoug will have a two hour break after the 800m final, as will Chloe Foerster, who ran the fastest time in qualifying in the 800 at 2:03.71.

On the field, Washington has three men entered in the triple jump in Roman Hutchinson, Trevontay Smith, and Tim Luebbert, plus women's shot putter Kaia Tupu-South.

Media partner Runnerspace.com ($) and Big Ten Plus ($) will stream the final day of competition at the Big Tens starting at 7:20 am.

Day 1 results are available here.

BIG SKY RECAP...

In Flagstaff, Arizona, Eastern Washington's Suzi Woodall won the women's pole vault at the Big Sky Indoor Track & Field Championships at the J. Lawrence Walkup Skydome Friday to help put the Eagles in fourth place after Friday's competition.

Woodall cleared 13-9.25 (4.20m) on her third attempt to overtake Montana's Samantha Serex, who led the competition before Woodall took over with a first attempt make at 13-5.25 (4.10m).

Defending Big Sky long jump champ Egypt Simmons finished second with a best of 20-6.5 (6.26m), while Kimberly Smith was fourth at 19-9.5 (6.03m).

Dyvhine Fonoti was fourth in the weight throw with a best of 60-10 (18.54m).

Thursday, Ella Seelhoff finished seventh in the pentathlon with a final score of 3121 points.

Eastern goes into Saturday's competition with 30 points after 6 events, as Northern Arizona leads with 52 points after six events.

While the men are yet to get on the scoreboard, the Eagles have a number of qualifiers from Friday's running events, led by Maddy Shekhawat, who was the top qualifier in the 60 hurdles in 7.79.

Also qualifying for Saturday's finals were Daniel Gaik in the 400 (47.37); Kristian Phennicie and Enoch Okoh in the 60 with identical times of 6.76; Phennicie in the 200 at 21.49; and Owen Higgins in the 800 (1:51.67).

Stevenson HS grad Garret Bernt of Northern Arizona was second in the weight throw with a best of 73-10.75 (22.52m).

Bernt's NAU Lumberjacks leads after five events with 63 points.

The meet resumes Saturday starting at 9 am, with streaming on ESPN Plus ($).

Results of the Big Sky Indoor are available here.

WESTERN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE RECAP...

At The Podium in Spokane, defending women's distance medley relay champion Seattle University were beaten decisively by UT Arlington in first day action at the Western Athletic Conference indoor championships Friday.

The Redhawks' team of McKenna White, Taylor Marks, Annabelle Clapp, and Azalea Groleau clocked 11:52.39, as UT Arlington won in 11:44.42.

SeattleU led through the first two legs, but legs of 2:18.66 on the 800 and 4:56.55 on the 1600 leg doomed the Redhawks. UT Arlington, which was fifth going into the third leg, countered with splits of 2:15.72 on the 800 and 4:48.68 on the 1600.

The SeattleU women stand sixth with 8 points, as Utah Valley leads after six events with 75 points.

After five events, the SeattleU men's squad is in seventh place with 2 points, thanks to a seventh place finish in the distance medley relay, where the Redhawks ran 10:32.80.

Utah Valley also leads the men's competition with 61 points.

Results from the first day of the WAC indoor championships are available here.

OUTDOOR SEASON BEGINS SATURDAY FOR SPU, SAINT MARTIN'S & WESTERN...

The 2025 outdoor season begins Saturday for Seattle Pacific, Saint Martin's and Western Washington as they head to Tacoma for the Ed Boitano Invitational, hosted by the University of Puget Sound.

Action gets underway at Baker Stadium on the UPS campus at 11 am.

NOTE: The Big Ten, Big Sky, and Western Athletic Conference, along with the sports information offices of the University of Washington, Eastern Washington University, and Seattle University contributed to this report.

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