Huskies' Hana Moll wins Lausanne Diamond League pole vault...
LAUSANNE--Washington's Hana Moll (Chiara Montesano/Diamond League photo) emerged with the victory in the pole vault at Friday night's Athletissima Lausanne meeting, the twelfth stop of the Wanda Diamond League series.
Moll, the NCAA indoor champ and outdoor runner-up this season, started her day with a second attempt make at her opening height of 14-9 (4.50m).
She followed up with a first attempt make at 15-2.75 (4.64m), which essentially eliminated half of the ten-woman field.
Moll and Switzerland's Angelica Moser were the only ones to clear the next height of 15-6.5 (4.74m), with both needing two attempts to navigate the bar.
That height eliminated both the reigning world champion and former Pullman resident Katie Moon, along with fellow American Sandi Morris.
At the eventual winning height of 15-10.5 (4.84m), Moser, who was ahead of Moll on total misses, couldn't clear the bar on her three attempts, but Moll used a third attempt to clear and take the win.
Moll declined to take any more attempts after securing the victory.
Hana's winning mark equaled the fourth-best performance on the all-time, all-dates collegiate list. That also matched the Moll family's outdoor record.
According to UW assistant coach Tim Reilly, who accompanied Moll, "She prepared and executed like a pro tonight. The past 2 weeks of light training and quality jumping set her up, but she was maturely focused and dialed in. Excited but not stressed."
Reilly said that Hana will continue on to Zürich for the final regular season Diamond League meet.
With her win, Moll is now eighth in the Diamond League women's pole vault standings with ten points.
Afterwards, she told the media in the mixed zone, "I'm really proud of how today went. Whatever the weather, I wasn´t going to let it affect me, the two words in my mind were "fearless" and "fierce". I focused on myself rather than the competitors around me, and that led to my result. The energy in the stadium was amazing, and for the rest of the season I want to keep executing my technique, having fun and doing what I did today."
Courtesy of the Wanda Diamond League, here's Hana's post race interview:
In a very exciting men's 800, Brandon Miller of the Brooks Beasts finished third in the race, snapping his five meet winning streak that began in LA in May.
Miller was in a good position with 300 meters to go behind Canada's Marco Arop and defending Olympic champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi of Kenya.
As they came off the final turn, Arop started fading, while Wanyonyi held his line. Meanwhile, Algeria's Djamel Sedjati went to the outside with Wanyonyi on the inside, and snuck in for second.
Wanyonyi held on for the win in 1:42.19, with Sedjati in second in a season best 1:42.31, and Miller third in 1:42.55.
In the women's 400 hurdles, Washington alum Gianna Woodruff finished fifth in a time of 54.40, as Emma Zapletalová of Slovenia continued her dominance of the event this season. She clocked 52.41 for the win.
With her fifth place finish, Woodruff clinched a spot in the Diamond League finals in Brussels in two weeks.
The Wanda Diamond League series resumes Sunday with the Kamila Skowlimoska Memorial meeting, with Washington alum Nathan Green entered in the mens 1500 meters.
The Silesia field includes the last two Olympic champions in Norway's Jakob Ingebrigtsen and the USA's Cole Hocker; a former world champion in Great Britain's Jake Wightman; and fellow Americans Vince Ciattei, and Hobbs Kessler.
Flotrack ($) will stream the meet starting at 5 am Pacific time Sunday.
KERR EXTENDED INVITATION TO WORLD ATHLETICS ULTIMATE CHAMPIONSHIPS...
In a short conversation Friday morning during the team's training session in Seattle, Brooks Beasts head coach Danny Mackey confirmed that world mile record holder Josh Kerr of the Seattle based squad has been extended an invitation to compete in the new World Athletics Ultimate Championships in Budapest on September 11-13th.
Kerr, as a current world record holder in the mile, was invited under the Exceptional Invitation provision, which allows the meet to invite one non-qualified athlete into the meet.
Mackey also confirmed that Kerr will not compete in either the Weltklasse meet in Zürich or the Wanda Diamond League finals in Brussels, but will concentrate solely on the Ultimate Championships, where the winner in each event will take home a first place prize of $150,000.
NOTE: The Wanda Diamond League contributed to this report.
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