Moon Advances To Olympic Final, Bassitt To Compete In Repechage Round

The Games of the XXXIII Olympiad in Paris, France, are in their second week of competition, but for former Ashland University national champions Katie Moon and Trevor Bassitt, their 2024 Summer Olympic debuts came early Eastern time on Monday (Aug. 5) morning.
 
Moon's top effort on Monday in the qualification round of the women's pole vault – 4.55 meters/14-feet-11 – tied her with 10 other competitors for the best mark of the round. Moon will be one of 20 finalists going for Olympic gold on Wednesday (Aug. 7) at 1 p.m. Eastern (shown live on Peacock).

"When I walked out and I heard the crowd and I saw my family, I got the prickles behind my eyes," Moon said. "It was just very real in that moment that this is the Olympics. Last time, it was special. It was cool. But it did not feel like this. This feels like what I thought the Olympics would feel like. The stadium was so loud, it's unbelievable. I've ever experienced those acoustics. And it's cool. It's really awesome."
 
The 2020 Summer Olympics women's pole vault gold medalist, Moon enters her second Olympic games as the No. 4 women's pole vaulter in the world in 2024 (4.85 meters/15-feet-11). Indoors and outdoors combined, Moon is the No. 5 women's pole vaulter in world history (4.95 meters/16-feet-2¾).
 
She was a two-time NCAA Division II national champion and three-time D-II All-American in the pole vault for the Eagles, and continues to boast school pole vault records both indoors (4.27 meters/14-feet-0) and outdoors (4.44 meters/14-feet-6¾). Moon is a two-time world champion and a world silver medalist.
 
Moon also is a member of the 2022 U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Division II Athlete Hall of Fame, and will go into the 2024 class of the Ashland University athletics Hall of Fame in October.

With another gold medal, Moon would become the first American women's pole vaulter to earn two, and she would join Russia's Yelena Isinbayeva as the only women's pole vaulters in the world to accomplish the feat. 
 
In Round 1 of the men's 400-meter hurdles on Monday, Bassitt finished in 49.38 seconds – fifth in Heat 2 and tied for 23^rd overall. He will go into the repechage round on Tuesday (Aug. 6) at 6 a.m. Eastern (shown live on USA Network and Peacock).
 

Trevor Bassitt is no stranger to adversity in the sport as an unsponsored athlete.

He'll look to bounce back in tomorrow's 400m Hurdle Repechage where the top 2 in each heat will move on to the Semi-Finals.

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— FloTrack (@FloTrack) August 5, 2024

A two-time world outdoor gold medalist to go with two world indoor silver medals and an outdoor worlds bronze, Bassitt was a 10-time NCAA Division II national champion and 21-time D-II All-American at AU. He also was a key cog in three Eagle men's D-II team national titles (2019 indoor and outdoor, 2021 indoor).
 
His individual national titles came in the outdoor 4x400-meter relay (two), outdoor 400 hurdles (two), indoor 60 hurdles (two), indoor 200 dash (one), indoor 4x400 relay (two) and indoor 400 dash (one).

Ashland University's two Summer Olympics representatives are as many as the rest of the NCAA Division II Midwest Region combined (Davenport and Northern Michigan one each).