South Dakota senior Emily Grove cleared a school record 14 feet, 9 inches, to take 10th in the women’s pole vault in the U.S. Olympic Trials at Hayward Field Sunday afternoon.
Grove entered the final having set an outdoor personal best of 14-5 ¼ in the preliminaries. She once again cleared the height, which was the opening bar, on her third attempt. Grove went on to make 14-9 on her second attempt for 10th place. The height is a half-inch shy of her all-time personal record.
“I am incredibly excited that I made finals as that was my number one goal,” Grove said. “Today I just wanted to jump well. My attempts at 15-1 were okay, but I am definitely ready to jump it. I am ready to join the 15-foot club.”
Grove broke Bethany (Buell) Firsick’s school record of 14-7 ½ from 2013. Firsick cleared that height to capture the 2013 NCAA Outdoor Championships with an NCAA Championship meet record.
American record holder, Jenn Suhr of Adidas, clinched the meet with a vault of 15-9. Suhr is joined on Team USA by Nike’s Sandi Morris and Arkansas freshman Alexis Weeks. Weeks, the 2016 NCAA Champion, Duke’s Megan Clark and Grove were the three collegians to qualify for Sunday’s final.
