Ashland alums Moon, Bassitt heading to Paris Olympics

The top-ranked women's pole vaulter in the world will have the opportunity to repeat as an Olympic gold medalist – and she won't be the only Ashland University representation in Paris.
 
On Sunday, June 30 at the 2024 U.S. Olympic Team Trials in Eugene, Ore., former Ashland University national champion Katie Moon (of Olmsted Falls, Ohio) earned the right to defend her Olympic gold medal in the women's pole vault by finishing in second place at 4.73 meters/15-feet-6¼.
 
Shortly after that on Sunday night, in the men's 400-meter hurdles final, yet another former Eagle national champ, Trevor Bassitt (of Bluffton, Ohio), qualified for his first Olympic games by finishing third with a season-best time of 47.82 seconds.
 
The 2024 Summer Olympics, the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad, will be July 26-Aug. 11 in Paris, France.
 
Moon, who came into the Trials as the world's top-ranked women's pole vaulter this season at 4.85 meters/15-feet-11, won a gold medal for Team USA at the delayed 2021 (technically 2020) Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, with a top vault of 4.90 meters/16-feet-0¾.

 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). 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 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.
 
Bassitt, who came into the day as the No. 8-ranked men's 400 hurdler in the world, improved upon his previous season-best time by 1.11 seconds to qualify for Team USA for the first time.

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).

• Also for Ashland, Morgan Shigo, a volunteer throws coach for the AU track and field team, placed 11th with a top mark of 71.94 meters/236-feet-0.

• Earlier at the Trials, another Eagle volunteer throws coach, Rachel Tanczos, finished fourth in the women's hammer throw at 70.98 meters/232-feet-10.

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