2023 HS Girls Athlete Of The Year — Hana Moll

THOUGH SHE WAS already knocking on the door of national- and world-class pole vaulting as a junior, Hana Moll (Capital, Olympia, Washington) was not planning to leave high school competition behind in ’23. She only intended to mix in a few professional meets while savoring her senior season. In the end, she not only dominated at the scholastic level, but made it to the biggest stage in the world to cap a campaign that earned her T&FN’s High School Girls Athlete Of The Year honors.

“My goals going into the year were just to have a fun last high school season,” says the 18-year-old Moll, who as an 11th-grader had a best of 14-8 indoors and won the World Junior (U20) title. “I wanted to continue doing high school track, so that’s what I did for the majority of the spring season. I did more national [pro] meets here and there, but most of the time I was focusing on my high school meets.”

After a high school campaign where her only serious competition came from twin sister Amanda, Moll went on to finish 3rd at the USATF Championships in July and score a spot on the World Championships team. In Budapest she raised her PR to 15-3 (4.65) and tied for 9th in the final.

“It was surreal,” she says of that experience. “Being able to interact with athletes at that level, especially at my age, I feel like it will really help me going forward, because now I have that perspective of what it’s like to be at the top level.”