Now that we’re in the middle of the April, most states around the country are well into hosting their first few meets of the year. Southern states like Florida are already entering championship season.

One of the hottest meets of the year for high school track and field is the Arcadia Invitational held annually at Arcadia High School in California. This year, they saw a record 690 schools from 36 different states register to attend. That is WILD! Besides attending Penn Relays, my high school never sent us to a meet of that size!

The Women’s Pole Vault was an event to see at Arcadia and you may have already seen video of the winner, Hana Moll. Below is a video Runnerspace posted on Youtube of Hana’s 15 foot clearance! Hana is the first US high school female to jump 15’ outdoors.

The competition didn’t start off as expected for the Moll sisters though. After Amanda entered the competition at 13’-03”, she was unable to make 13’-09” and Hana only managed to clear her opening heigh of 13’-09” on her third and final attempt. Hana’s third attempt make was enough to win the meet (must be nice to win a meet on your opening height!) Hana then went on to jump 14’-03”, 14’-10”, and finally 15’.

As a reminder, we have yet to see a NCAA female athlete clear 15’ this outdoor or past indoor season. The Moll sisters will be immediate favorites upon entering the next level. With some areas of their vault still to clean-up, the Moll sisters have plenty of height and record ahead of them. One of the areas of their vault I love is the bottom arm’s wrist at takeoff. The bottom wrist is firmly under the pole and palm up to ensure the vaulter has maximum control rather than a false grip with bent wrists.

In the men’s competition, Hilton Green captured the gold with 16’-09” while Seth Nelson and Dylan Curtis jumped 16’-03” for 2nd and 3rd respectively.

The Penn Relays are 16 days away and set to begin on April 27th. The high school boys pole vault is set to take place on Thursday at noon while the girls championship is set for Friday morning. The college mens championship will be Saturday at 11:30am while the women’s will be held after at approximately 2:30pm.

Penn Relays is a meet that brings in tens of thousands of fans from around the world thanks to their inclusion of international athletes, especially from around the Caribbean. In 2010, the Penn Relays saw a star studded Jamaican 4X100 that included both Yohan Blake and Usain Bolt. Even though it’s nearly almost always questionable weather, athletes turn out here and we see the best of the best from the eastern half of the United States. During my time in high school, I was fortunate enough to place second at the meet.

Ask anyone if it’s the best place to get a PR in pole vault and they’ll probably tell you no. Although the atmosphere of the meet is second to none, the April timing of the meet and the shape of the stadium nearly always result in swirling winds. The all-time record for Franklin Field is Lawrence Johnson with a jump of 19 feet from back in 1996. The high school record is 16’-6.5” set by Jordan Yamoah back in 2011.

While the final high school entries haven’t been announced, some of the Olympic Development fields have been, including Olivia Baker in the 800m and NFL/Track and Field Star Devon Allen in the 110m hurdles.

Women’s Top 10 include 10 vaulters from 10 different schools and to no surprise the Texas Relays take 3 of the top 10 marks. It’s also no surprise to see Chloe, Amanda, and Kenna at the top after their indoor performances. What is a surprise is Riley Felts! The vaulter who never cleared 14’ indoors now has 4 consecutive meets above 14’ in outdoor.

Men’s top 10 include your usual suspects minus Sondre as he has yet to put up a mark in outdoor. Once again, it’s obvious that THE meet for pole vault early in the season is the Texas Relays. Hunter Garretson of Akron has climbed his way up through this indoor and outdoor season to a new PR of 5.71m. Similarly Skyler Magula of Cal recently jumped his first 18’ bar with a 5.52m clearance.

Before we get to keeping up with the pros around the world, I’d love to hear from my audience what content they’d like to continue seeing in addition to regular updates throughout the season like this. We’ve grown this newsletter to well more than 100 weekly readers and several paying subscribers (thank you)!! Your feedback and support helps keep this going. As a former state champion, D1 vaulter, and now high school coach, there’s a plethora of content we could as side articles in addition to the normal newsletter, ranging from highlighting recruiting tips, deep technical analysis of the vault, and tips and tricks for vaulters just getting started.

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Mondo repping bars in practice at LSU.

Katie Moon announced that the Doha DL will be her first outdoor event. (Wilma Murto has made the same announcement)

Sandi Morris posted a circuit that athletes can follow along with!

Eliza McCartney won the New Zealand national title with 4.75m.

Sam Kendricks has been cheering on his little brother, John Scott, who finally bested Sam’s high school state record! John Scott Kendricks will be attending Arkansas in the Fall.

Sondre has been filling out training with some hurdle sessions and cold baths in the woods if you check out his Instagram.

Alysha Newman has posted some very solid technical videos in the past week.

Anicka Newell posted her best season opener ever at 4.61m.

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