There have been many honors
Katie Nageotte Moon has earned since graduating from Ashland University in 2013.
And there will be another coming at the Ashland University Hall of Fame Induction and Student-Athlete of the Year recognition, Oct. 5 at 9:30 a.m. at the John C. Myers Convocation Center – member of the 2024 AU Hall of Fame class.
"I was so excited. I was honored," Moon said of getting the call that she was entering the Hall this year. "Any time that you're part of a Hall of Fame…it's just amazing. To be one of the best to ever go to that university is pretty incredible. I'm honored."
Moon started soaring as an Eagle after coming to campus following a stint at NCAA Division I Dayton, and still is soaring at an elite level to this day. She was a two-time NCAA Division II national champion and three-time D-II All-American in the pole vault, and continues to boast school pole vault records both indoors (4.27 meters/14-feet-0) and outdoors (4.44 meters/14-feet-6¾).
"I just had a good feeling about it when I did my initial visits, before I went to college," Moon said about AU. "I really liked
Denny Steele, who was the pole vault coach, and I loved that there was a brand-new track that was built, I had a bunch of friends who went here. So when I was really struggling at Dayton, I knew that I needed a place that I had a really good feeling about."
Since graduating from Ashland, Moon has taken her pole vault career to new heights. The delayed 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, saw Moon win a gold medal for Team USA with a top vault of 4.90 meters/16-feet-0¾, and at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France, Moon was a silver medalist with a top mark of 4.85 meters/15-feet-11.
Moon kept training for months during the COVID-19 pandemic period which delayed the 2020 Olympics, and she said, "by just having training, without travel, without competitions, it really allowed me to get better in a way that I don't know that I would have without that."
With the silver, Moon became the second American woman – and fourth woman in the world – to earn two pole vault Olympic medals.
"It's surreal," she said. "It's what I've worked so hard for, but it still just doesn't feel real. I just feel like I'm me, I'm just Katie. I just like to pole vault."
Her career-best vault of 4.95 meters/16-feet-2¾ is the fifth-best in world women's pole vault history (indoor/outdoor combined), and she also is a two-time world champion and a world silver medalist. Moon also was in the 2022 class of the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Division II Athlete Hall of Fame.
Moon said she knew after college that she wanted to keep pole vaulting as long as she possibly could. She qualified for the USATF indoor national meet during college, then qualified for the USATF outdoor national meet shortly thereafter.
"I knew that I could hold my own with the best women in the country, but I still also felt like I could be better. There wasn't one moment where it was just this 'ah ha' moment, I just wanted to do it as long as I could, and I kept jumping heights that proved that I could keep doing it."
When it comes to her pole vault career, the first name that comes to mind is Steele, who still is mentoring Eagle pole vaulters to this day.
"He really saved my career. There really is no other way to put it," Moon said. "I was a mess when I came to Ashland from a vaulting standpoint. Just the patience that he had with me, and the way that he instilled this confidence that was pretty unshakable. I was very seriously debating quitting when I was at Dayton, and there's no way that I would have achieved anything if I hadn't worked with Denny."
Moon will go into the Ashland Hall of Fame without her head coach,
Jud Logan, present. Logan passed away at age 62 on Jan. 3, 2022.
"Very bittersweet," she admitted. "Jud was such a big part of my Ashland career. He was such an inspiring presence and motivating presence. His presence in the room was just so motivating. He really was a huge part of me finding my internal motivation.
"It's definitely heartbreaking to know that he's not going to be there, but I still feel like he's here with us."
Moon's father,
Mark, passed away in 2007 at age 45. Her mother is
Diane, and Moon has a brother,
Andy, a former AU pole vaulter himself, and a sister,
Emily.
"I'm so blessed to have the most incredible family," Moon said. "Truly, so supportive. My dad, he drove me to all my private lessons. Whatever sport I wanted to be in, he was doing everything in his power to help me to be the best I could be at it. I would have loved to have seen his reaction to any of my major competitions. But I know he's up there smiling.
"My mom just was an absolute rock star. From the day he passed, she just showed us how to keep going when things get tough, and I owe so much of that to her. And my siblings are just the perfect balance of supporting, but keeping me humble."
Moon's coach is
Brad Walker, a two-time Olympian himself.
"Denny saved my career, but Brad changed it in every way possible," said Moon. "I would never, ever have any of his accolades without him. I needed a very specific type of personality that was going to push me and hold me accountable and be very tough with me, but be reasonable. He taught me a work ethic in a way that I never experienced or had done before. And he really taught me how to think and focus on the runway."
Moon is married to her husband,
Hugo, the assistant rowing coach at the University of Tulsa.
"He just keeps me so grounded. He's truly amazing," Moon said. "He's British, so he grew up going to the competitions that I now compete at, so I really didn't need to explain what I did. He just got it right away, and was just so supportive right away. He also just makes me laugh in really high-pressure situations.
"He's the perfect balance of keeping me laughing, being supportive, and I just love our relationship. It's so much fun."
