AS NCAA WOMEN’S vault champion Amanda Moll of Washington and twin sister Hana prepare for Friday’s Monaco DL comp (July 10), the second career DL start for each, Amanda can look back on a ’26 collegiate campaign that got off to a rocky start yet ended with a victory.
Between them, the Moll twins have now captured 5 NCAA crowns: Amanda’s wins coming at the ’25 Indoor and ’26 Outdoor, and Hana’s at the ’24 Indoor, ’25 Outdoor and ’26 Indoor.
For Amanda, the season following her Tokyo World Champs tie for 6th with Hana got off to a modest start at the UW Invitational in Seattle on January 31. In that home meet, she cleared 14-6¾ (4.43) off a short approach. A setback shortly followed when she took a tumble during a vault session while doing a sliding box plant drill and ended up with a minor concussion.
The head injury took her out of her next scheduled event, the Don Kirby Elite meet in Albuquerque, which was the final regular season contest before the Big 10 Indoor in Indianapolis. With no meets left to qualify for the NCAA Champs, the Washington coaching staff elected to shut her down.
“I felt that the time away gave me an opportunity to focus on myself, and it really paid off as I was able to put it together at the right time,” assesses Amanda, now the highest-flying collegiate vaulter both indoors (16-1¼/4.91) and out (15-10½/4.84).
The decision to curtail the indoor season by Husky associate head coach Toby Stevenson and assistant Tim Reilly, who was the Molls’ vault coach at the Northwest Pole Vault Club through their high school career, was the right choice, according to Amanda.
She felt that after the World Championships last September, she didn’t have a break as she went straight into fall quarter at Washington. The concussion was the catalyst to step back, even though she missed traveling with her sister and teammates.
Just to switch things up, Amanda served as a training partner to Husky and Spanish heptathlete Sofia Cosculluela, jumping in on her workouts, particularly in the long jump and shot put. She then started ramping up for her outdoor season debut at the Maurie Plant Meeting in Melbourne, where the twins faced off against reigning Olympic champion Nina Kennedy.
Amanda finished 3rd with a clearance of 14-3½ (4.36), while Hana made 14-11½ (4.56). Kennedy took the victory, leaving the home crowd happy on a cool evening, clearing 15-5¾ (4.72).
After a 7th-place finish at Mt. SAC, she placed 2nd to Hana at both the Desert Heat meet in Tucson, and the Big 10 meet in Lincoln before tying Baylor’s Molly Haywood for 1st at the NCAA West Regional in Fayetteville — the season by then progressing positively toward her first outdoor NCAA win.
With the outdoor crown in the back pocket to match Amanda’s ’25 indoor title, the twins returned to Hayward Field to compete in the Pre Classic against a stellar field that included ’25 WC Team USA teammates Katie Moon and Sandi Morris. In their DL debuts, Hana tied for 4th at 15-5 (4.70) with Amanda =6th at 15-1 (4.60).
As the reigning NCAA champion and her twin predecessor head into their first DL comp across the pond, for once they won’t be the youngest vaulters out there. That status will belong to French 17-year-old Moana Peyrard. Indoors in February, while still 16, Peyrard vaulted 14-7¼ (4.45). Coincidentally, that’s what Amanda jumped at that age.
The twins may find themselves sharing tips on the art and science of flying high while young.
