Over the next several weeks, Missouri MileSplit will be doing a deep dive into the top returners for each event heading into the 2025 Track and Field season. We will have premium rankings pieces highlighting the top 100 returners in each classification as well as an overall outlook for each event for all non-subscribers. Let's take a look at the Girls Pole Vault.
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Class 5 Outlook
The top three finishers from last year's Class 5 State meet have graduated, but the top performer of last year's Class 5 field returns for the 2025 season. Truman's Jayden Herl cleared 3.74m (12-3.25) for the win at her Sectional meet before finishing fifth at the State meet. Nixa's Eva Williams ended up clearing one more height than Herl at State, but was still short of her 3.66m (12-0) personal best. These two are the only ones in Class 5 with a best over 12 feet and should be among the favorites to win it all in 2025.
Six more girls return with a personal best over 11 feet, three of whom also earned all-state medals as well. Alyssa Carver was just a hair under 12 feet when she cleared 3.65m (11-11.75) at the District 4 meet. The Grain Valley senior was seventh at the State meet. Lee's Summit West's Miller Wood was sixth, just under her personal best of 3.64m (11-11.25). With three girls within 3 centimeters of each other after Herl, it should be a hotly contested event this season. Liberty's Ansley Drake cleared 3.59m (11-9.25) in mid-May, adding another Kansas City native to the mix. Two other KC natives are also over 11 feet in Megan Prestia and Lauren Smith, along with the first eastern Missouri native, Eureka's Ayla Bishop.
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Class 4 Outlook
After Ft. Zumwalt East's Avery Foster burst onto the scene in January with a 3.35m (11-0) clearance, the Class 4 scene was flipped on its head. Her outdoor season debut brought another 11 foot clearance and was followed by 12 straight clearances over 3.29m (10-9.5), the personal best of the next closest returner Daelyn Crisostomo. Foster ended her sophomore breakout season with a 3.66m (12-0) mark, just shy of her 3.74m (12-3.25) best. Foster should be considered the favorite to pull off another win in 2025.
Crisostomo's 3.29m best has her as the best bet to take down Foster, on paper, at least, but just a millimeter behind her, are both North County's Claire Scott and Hillsboro's Maleah Lambrich. Scott, Carl Junction's Brooke Jasperson, Crisostomo, and Lambrich, and Festus's Alexandra Yates all posted 3.12m marks at the Class 4 State meet last May, but finished in that order based on misses. Jasperson (3.13m, 10-3.25) and Yates (3.12m, 10-2.75) are seventh and eighth among returners, though, as it is Osage's Macey Kessler who sits fifth at 3.18m (10-5.25), but only because Farmington and Clarah Wilkins are most likely heading up to Class 5. Just behind Kessler is Kearney's Anna Williams at 3.15m (10-4).
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Class 3 Outlook
In Class 3, three girls return over 11 feet and three more returner over 10 feet. After that, no one else has a double digit in the feet column.
Lawson's Kamryn Florea won the 2024 State championship, clearing her personal best 3.48m (11-5). It was a breakout state series for the sophomore as she climbed from 3.2m (10-6) all the way up to 3.43m (11-3) in the matter of a week, before hitting that 3.48m mark. She finished first or second in all of ten of her regular season/state series meets.
Notre Dame Cape Girardeau senior Abigail Spooler was the heavy favorite heading into the Class 3 State meet with her 3.43m (11-3) personal best. She ended up third at State after finding herself locked in a showdown between Florea, newly-graduated Alaina Loman, and Aurora's Makena Hall. Hall was fourth at State, finishing just shy of her 3.38m (11-1) personal best.
The three others returning over 10 feet are Addilyn Wooster, Bella Abell, and Addy Winder. Wooster cleared 3.25m (10-8) in 2024 before finishing fifth at State. Abell was fourth at her Sectional meet in 3.09m (10-1.75), but was notably absent at the State meet. Finally, at 3.05m (10-0), Winder is the sixth best returner and finished in the dreaded ninth position in Jefferson City last May.
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Class 2 Outlook
Class 2 features a heavyweight battle between the state's top overall returner - Butler's Tandee Hiser - and the reigning Class 2 State champion - Archie's Mollie Andrews.
It was Andrews with the Gold medal after the State awards ceremony while Hiser had to walk away with a little more motivation for her sophomore year after AAU JO Titles as a Junior High competitor.
Hiser lived up to the hype coming out an eighth grade season in which she won the AAU Junior Olympics for the second time in 3.3m (10-9.75). Her 3.75m (12-3.75) personal best came in late April and is the second best mark for a freshman in State history. Andrews, though, owns the Class 2 crown as it stands, as Hiser ended up third on jumps at the 2024 State meet. Andrews' 3.68m (12-0.75) personal best was unnecessary for the State gold, but did end up being a Class 2 State meet record. The Pitt State commit and the up-and-coming sophomore are sure to be the favorites for the crown once again in 2025 as the next closest returner is a nearly a full two feet behind Andrews.
Saxony Lutheran's Casey Call is third among returners at 3.11m (10-2.5) and ended up in a tie for sixth with Pierce City's Paige Fenske at the 2024 State meet. Ashlen Garrett was fourth with her 2.95m (9-8) personal best and Plattsburg's Allyson Elliot finished fifth. She cleared 2.86m (9-4.5) last spring.
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Class 1 Outlook
Only 33 Class 1 girls return for the 2025 season with a pole vault mark to their name. Only one owns a mark over 10 feet and only one other athlete has a mark over 9 feet. Worth County's Eva Engel is one of the more obvious State champion favorites in any event in any class at the moment as her 3.5m (11-5.75) personal best is a full two and a half feet ahead of the next closest returner. Engel is the reigning Class 1 State champion and won her second career gold by a foot. She cleared 3 meters 11 times and only lost at the Kansas Relays.
No other Class 1 girls cleared 3 meters as Appleton City's Kady James is next on the list at 2.75m (9-0.25). Gallatin's Lyndsey King posted a 2.74m (8-11.75) mark, while Rock Port's Landrey Kelly, the second-best non-senior at the 2024 State meet, has a 2.62m (8-7) best, and Paris sophomore Ava Crain cleared 2.6 meters.
Gallatin's King, above, and Rock Port's Kelly, below.