It’s an interesting comparison.

The 13th and 21st best women’s basketball players in the world will likely be in uniform for the WNBA All-Star Game in Chicago later this summer.

Meanwhile, the 13th and 21st ranked woman pole vaulters in the world will get up tomorrow morning and go to class at Capital High School.

Granted, it’s early in the season. Many an experienced, talented vaulter has yet to make her 2022 outdoor debut.

But as of this writing, Cougars’ junior Amanda Moll is 13th in the world senior women’s outdoor rankings with a mark of 14 feet, 9 ½ inches, trailing world leader Nina Kennedy of Australia by little more than seven inches. Her twin, Hana Moll, is 21st with a PR of 14-5 ¼ outdoors, though she’s vaulted 14-8 indoors.

None of the women ahead of them are younger than the Molls, who turned 17 during January. Only four of the others in the top 21 were born in the 21st century.

Which is one reason the twins cherish their ongoing ties to Capital and their high school track team despite rubbing shoulders with the best when they travel to major events.

“We’re so successful, but we’re still so young. I don’t feel the urge to go onto the pro circuit,” said Hana. “I still want to live out my life as a teenaged high school girl and have fun. The pro circuit has an added amount of pressure I don’t want yet.”

Added Amanda, “I don’t want to rush anything that’s not meant to be rushed.”

Capital assistant coach Mike Strong knows exceptional talent when he sees it. He, and the twins’ club coach, Tim Reilly of Seattle’s Northwest Pole Vault, don’t need to be convinced of the Molls’ potential. They believe patience is also a key.

“They could be pros, but that’s not the point,” Strong said. “The goal for me and for Coach Reilly is to keep them in the process so that we’re not working toward specific marks, we’re working on their development.”

Hana is also second in Washington in the 100-meter hurdles with a 14.81 mark, a split second behind Emerald Ridge freshman phenom JaiCieonna Gero-Holt across all classifications. Amanda is 10th statewide in the long jump at 17-10. Both join sophomores Kora Landers and Addison Harrington on a Cougar 4x100 relay team ranked seventh at 50.16.

“It’s something fun,” said Hana. “Pole vault is very different than racing. When I do hurdles I get added adrenaline and love for the sport.”

Amanda says doing an event not involving a pole is “good for my soul.”

Capital’s 4x200 relay team of Harrington, Auburn Rohaly, Karina Greenlee and Lilly Geuin is also a threat to score points in post-season competition.

“Our coaches are great, they work together so well,” said Amanda of the staff led by girls head coach Margret Dallas and her husband, boys head coach Michael Dallas.

Strong, the former head coach at both Yelm and Capital who also works two days a week with Gero-Holt, is, at 74, one of the more notable track gurus in the Northwest. He thinks the window is open for a high Cougar finish at state, fueled by the Molls.

“They really want to be part of their team. Their friends are all here and their desire to be a part of that drives them forward,” Strong said. “The girls team is very strong, they’ll have a chance to be in the top three and maybe win state.”

Hana credits Cougar coaches for making her and her sister’s sometimes conflicting careers as both nationally-competitive and high school athletes work.

“Our coaches are so cooperative. We’ve got club teammates up in Seattle whose high school coaches won’t let them go out of state to compete. Our coaches say ‘yeah, let’s make it happen,” she said.

The 5-foot-9 twins haven’t come out of nowhere. They’ve been involved in track and field, after a background in mountain biking, rock climbing and gymnastics, since 2013 and have pole vaulted for four years.

Their dad, Eric, CEO of the Mason Health hospital complex in Shelton, was a rower at the University of Washington who later kayaked at a highly competitive level. Their mom, Paula, had been fascinated with pole vaulting during her own high school days, but at a time when the event wasn’t offered for girls.

What’s remarkable, though, is the consistency of their improvement. As 13-year old beginners, they topped out at 8-8 ¼ each. By last season, each had broken 14 feet, with Amanda nearly shattering the world mark for 15-16 year olds.

Now, as the 17-18 segments of their careers begin, they top the age group, ranked first and second in the world junior ranks and the national high school ranks. Last weekend, both handily defeated vaulters from the University of Wisconsin and the home town Ducks at the Oregon Relays in Eugene. Hana was first with her 14-5 ¼ outdoor PR.

In January, Hana cleared 14-8 at the Pole Vault Summit in Reno. On a sweltering March day in Austin, Texas, Amanda, using a bigger pole than she had before, broke the American junior record with her 14-9 ½ vault.

“I’m not surprised at their physical progress but their vaulting progress has come faster than I thought,” said Strong. “The culture that surrounds them makes it possible. They help each other get better. Secondly, their family is amazing. Their dad does a lot of the psychological help with them.”

Hana believes working with her dad on mindfulness and daily reflections has been a plus.

“He’s a great guide for us,” said Amanda. “He doesn’t make us do anything we don’t want to do. Say I was struggling with certain weather conditions, he’ll help me to get focused and execute my performance.”

Paula, a dietician, handles the logistical end of her daughters’ track careers, and shares her nutritional expertise without being heavy-handed.

“She’s never made us eat anything we don’t want to eat,” said Hana. “But all the information she shares with us and the food we have around the house definitely helps us fuel our bodies properly.”

“I wouldn’t consider her our dietitian by any means, but as our mom she built a nutritional foundation when we were growing up,” said Amanda.

With their elite marks on the track and strong academic records, college recruiting for the Molls will be flipped on its head. Instead of trying to decide from a variety of pitches from coaches to select a university, they can select the school they want to attend and compete for.

“Our main focus is going to be the pole vault coach and the overall program,” Amanda, who may choose to major in business, said. “Then, of course, there’s the education.”

Hana says she’s looking to study sports science, with a minor in nutrition.

Wherever they go, their club coach, Reilly, who currently trains 70 aspiring vaulters sees more success in the offing. Writing in The Takeoff Magazine, his praise was effusive.

“They have the dexterity and balance of cats, they know exactly where they are in the air,” he wrote. “No raising bar or next pole seems to faze them. They jump with joyful confidence.”