Full recap from the 2023 Arcadia Invitational at Arcadia High School in California.
ARCADIA, CALIF. - The Arcadia Invitational is called the, "Home of National Records," for a reason.
On Saturday night in Southern California, one of the nation's most elite high school track meets lived up to its name when Capital pole vault star Hana Moll cleared the girls national outdoor record mark of 14 feet, 09.5 inches not just once, but twice, to set a new national record clearance of 15-00 at the 55th running of the Arcadia Invitational.
The previous outdoor record was held by Moll's twin sister, Amanda, who cleared the then-record height of 14-09.5 at last year's Texas Relays.
"I think the 15-foot mark was really important for me, especially mentally," Moll said in an interview with DyeStat. "I mean, 14 feet and 15 feet, it's just a mental thing for a lot of vaulters, especially women, so it was a big deal for me for confidence wise, like, knowing I can do it in the future."
Moll becomes the second female prep athlete in history to clear the 15-foot barrier in pole vault, joining sister Amanda when set the indoor national mark at 15-01.5 back in January at the Pole Vault Summit in Reno, Nevada.
"It was so fun," Amanda said on watching her sister. "I was jumping up and down every time she cleared it. I got adrenaline just as much as she did probably."
Amanda, who was last year's champion in the event at Arcadia, finished second behind her sister at 13-03. She made three attempts at 13-09 but was unable to clear the mark.
After passing on the first five height attempts, Hana Moll entered the competition at 13-09. On her first two attempts, she failed to clear the bar and was on the brink of elimination heading into her final attempt.
Moll was able to put together a quality effort on her third attempt, resulting in a clearance that eventually started a string of other great clearances.
On her next attempt, Moll cleared 14-03 on the first try, then moved to 14-10 to make an attempt at the outdoor national record. She failed her first try, but was able to collect herself again and got over the bar easily on her second try to set the first of her two national record marks.
Minutes later, Moll rolled right back out on the runway again to attempt at 15-00, this time only needing one attempt to clear the mark.
Moll took one more crack at another attempt by raising the bar to 15-01.75 in an effort to keep going but missed all three attempts.
"It's more of a motivation just to jump higher," Moll said. "Now that I've reached the 15s, there's a whole range of numbers to clear off of the mat."
Alongside Moll, two other Washington standouts collected invite titles of their own as Bothell's Haedyn Bambolo and Emerald Ridge's JaiCieonna Gero-Holt each won a field event.
Coming off a personal best throw of 47-01.25 in the shot put in a KingCO League meet at Inglemoor on Wednesday, Bambolo secured the girls invite title on her first throw with a mark of 45-10, beating the rest of the field by over four feet. Bambolo currently ranks fourth in the nation in the event following Wednesday's effort.
Bambolo also earned a 12th place finish in the discus, throwing 119-00.
Gero-Holt won the girls high jump for the second year in a row, going over 5-10 for the second time in this early season. She won last year's competition with a clearnce of 6-00.
Gero-Holt also took park in two more events to complete a busy day, placing fifth in both the 100 hurdles seeded race (14.64) and shot put invitational section (41-03).
Bear Creek's Braelyn Baker and Skyline's Rebecca O'Keefe each won seeded races of their own on the girls side in personal best efforts. Baker ran 11.79 to win the 100, while O'Keefe clocked 4:48.24 to win the mile. Baker also took part in the 200 invitational section, running another personal best 24.17 to finish fourth.
Sehome's Jake Andrews earned a pair of top four finishes in the boys 100 and 400 invitational races. The senior ran lifetime best times of 10.47 in the 100 to place fourth and 46.30 in the 400 to finish second.
Eastside Catholic's Dylan Davis clocked 10.49 to finish third in the boys 100 seeded race, with Seattle Academy's Reggie Witherspoon III trailing in fifth in 10.65.
Branden Ganashamoorthy, another athlete from Eastside Catholic, finished second in the boys long jump invite in a new lifetime best mark of 47-09. Earlier, Ganashamoorthy also jumped a personal best in long jump during the open section, hitting 21-11.
Sehome's Zack Munson and Bishop Blanchet's Vince Recupero ran lifetime best performances in the boys 3,200 invitational section, securing top 15 finishes along the way. Munson finished eighth in a time of 8:46.41, dipping well below his previous best of 8:53.12 from the Brooks PR Invite, with Recupero following behind in 12th in 8:47.60, down 13 seconds from his freshman year time.
Lakes Cruize Corvin was among the 3,200 invitational section as well, running a personal best 8:57.18 to finish 21st.
Walla Walla's Brody Hartley ran the third fastest 3,200 boys time for Washington in the seeded race, running a new personal best by eight seconds of 8:52.81.
Shorecrest's Luke Schmidt ran 9:27.01 to finish 26th in the rated race.
Skyline's Anna Callahan placed seventh in the girls mile invitational race, running a personal best effort of 4:51.45.
Bellingham's Javen Livas and Chayse Flick-Williams earned top 15 marks in their invitational events, with Livas placing 12th in boys shot put with a throw of 54-03 and Flick Williams jumped 17-02.50 to finish 13th in long jump. Livas won the open section earlier in the day with a personal best throw of 55-02 to move to Saturday nights invitational competition
Skyline's Sydney Collier and Bishop Blanchet's Lily LaPorte finished 24th and 29th, respectively, in the girls 3,200 invitational race with Collier running 10:42.32 and LaPorte running 10:54.84.
Lake Washington's Alexa Matora dipped well below her freshman year personal best time in the 800 by four seconds, running 2:10.99 to finish third in the girls open section. Mead's Charlotte Cullen lowered her personal best time by also four seconds, running 2:13.27 to finish eighth.
A quartet of boys 800 runners ran lifetime best efforts in the open section, with Mt. Spokane's Ben Sonneland leading the way in 1:54.56 to finish 11th. Squalicum's Chase Bartlett followed in 19th in 1:55.21, with Eastlake brothers Connor and Justin Hom finishing 21st and 32nd, respectively, in 1:55.36 and 1:56.42.
Kamiak's Kalia Estes placed 13th in the girls 300 hurdles open in 45.03, falling short of her personal best time of 44.68, and took 25th in the 100 hurdles in 15.35.
During Friday's competition, the team of Schneider, Recupero, Will Sandnes and Drew Oliver led Bishop Blanchet to finish third in the boys 4xMile relay, running a Washington No. 4 all-time effort in 17:24.20. Seattle Prep, featuring Carter Joy, Nicolas Davila, Miles Trius and Jack Henzke, placed 14th in 18:08.66.
Teryn Gardner, Olivia Ferraro, Reagan Berg and Cullen took part in two relay races that night for the Mead girls, with the first coming in the 4x800 invitational, finishing 9th in 9:38.59, followed by a sixth-place finish in the 4x1600 seeded race in 22:01.31. The same team also participated in the open DMR on Saturday, finishing 10th in 12:45.73.
Seton Catholic's Alexis Leone and East Valley-Spokane's Logan Hofstee each ran personal best times in the girls 3,200 seeded race, with Leone running 10:33.70 to finish 10th and Hofstee clocking 10:34.79 for 11th.
Henzke won the boys 3,200 open section 3 race in a new personal best time of 9:03.83.
Eastlake's Ethan Pedersen ran a season best 9:22 in the boys 3,200 open section 3, with Enumclaw's McCoy following in 17th, running 9:25.89.
Vashon Island freshman Bodie Thomas was 29th in the boys 3,200 open section 1 with a personal best time of 9:37.92.
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