Bridget Williams Clean Through 4.73m (15-6.25) To Win Title; Katie Moon Set To Defend Olympic Title; Brynn King Takes Risk Passing Late Bar But Makes Clutch Jump To Pass Sandy Morris And Make Team 

By David Woods for DyeStat

Tim Healy photos

EUGENE, Ore. – Sports gambling is widespread, even if it hasn’t come to track and field in the United States. Advice to would be-bettors when it does: Do not bet on the pole vault.

It is bad enough athletes sprint down a runway carrying a 14-foot noodle and catapult themselves over a bar as high as a two-story building. What could go wrong? Then you have situations like Sunday at the U.S. Olympic Trials.

Two of the three women making the team for the Paris Olympics barely made it out of qualifying Friday. Yikes. They were two of the last three in and vaulted six inches less than the 10 others.

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Two of the three Olympians started off in NCAA Division 2, not usually a launching pad for Olympic glory.

Bridget Williams’ takeaway:

“God works in mysterious ways.”

It is no mystery why Williams, Katie Moon and Brynn King are on the Olympic team. They all made 15-6.25 (4.73m) on first attempts, and no one else did.

Left behind: Sandi Morris, a seven-time global medalist who was fourth at 15-4.25 (4.68m). She had a clean sheet through that bar, stood in first place and was seemingly secure.

After she missed her third attempt at 15-6.25, she stayed lying in the pit, holding her head, contemplating the ramifications.

“Just in shock. It just happened so fast,” Morris said.

Story of the day was King, who bet on herself and hit a jackpot.

For one thing, she has improved 18 inches since transferring from Duke to Division 2 Roberts Wesleyan (N.Y.), where she is coached by Jenn Suhr, a three-time Olympian and 2012 gold medalist. For another, after missing once at 15-2.25, King passed her next two tries and the next bar, 15-4.25.

“It allowed me to save my legs for the big jump that I needed,” she said.

King, of Tomball, Texas, never finished higher than fourth in the ACC, never qualified for an NCAA Championships, never vaulted in USATF outdoor nationals. Now, she is an Olympian.

Suhr compared it to a pitcher throwing 78 mph suddenly hitting 95 mph.

“Deep down, I thought if I could execute what I’ve been doing in practice, I definitely had a shot to make the team,” King said.

She was just off the all-dates collegiate record of 15-7.25 (4.76m) set by Morris, then at Arkansas, in 2015.

Williams, 28, the former Bridget Guy, of Greensburg, Pa., never finished higher than fourth at NCAAs while at Virginia. She persisted, and last year she was 12th at the World Championships and won a gold medal at the Pan American Games.

After finishing fourth, fourth and fifth in May meets at Doha, Los Angeles and Eugene, she restored confidence by vaulting 15-6.25 in a June 7 meet at Washington, D.C.

“This is a dream come true for not only me, but my family and my coach,” Williams said. “This was our dream in the making. It’s really nice for it all to come together today.”

Moon, 33, of Omstead Falls, Ohio, started her journey at Division 2 Ashland University and has gone on to win the last three global golds: 2021 Olympics, 2022 and 2023 Worlds. She said this season seems like it is now beginning because she has been inhibited by chronic Achilles soreness.

She was in fourth place after missing her first try at 15-2.25 (4.63m).

“Having competed in the Olympics and World Championships, there’s nothing like this meet,” Moon said. “It is the most stressful, and it is the most daunting. You just kind of have to get through it.”

She said this likely would be her final Olympic Trials but plans to continue into 2025.

Morris, so often a U.S. teammate with Moon, said she would focus on the Diamond League for the rest of 2024.

Contact David Woods at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidWoods007.