Stanford, California – Mariya Lasitskene, the world’s dominant women’s high jumper, will be facing an incredible collection of young Prefontaine Classic débutantes as she attempts to repeat her success from the ’17 edition, where she raised the meet record to 6-8 (2.03).
The field has the event’s only 3-time Diamond League winner set to jump against the three most recent worldwide teenage sensations.
Lasitskene, 26, knows how to win. She hasn’t lost a major championship since 2014, and that one (a silver) practically didn’t matter as it was the first year she earned the No. 1 world ranking by Track & Field News. Lasitskene now has four No. 1 world rankings.
As the 2-time defending world champion (plus twice more indoors), she remains the one to beat anywhere. Last year she won her third Diamond League title – most ever in this event – and added European gold outdoor (August) and indoor (last month).
Lasitskene can appreciate young talent. She was just 21 when she first rated No. 1 in 2014, and 18 when in 2011 she set a world indoor U20 (Junior) record. Between July of 2016 and July of 2018, Lasitskene forged an amazing 45-meet win streak.
Vashti Cunningham, 21, already has a world title, winning the 2016 World Indoor in Portland with the leap (6-6¼/1.99) that finally bettered Lasitskene’s indoor World U20 standard. She was just 18 then and has now been world-ranked three straight years by T&FN– the first American with such a streak since Chaunte Lowe (2008-10).
This year the Las Vegas native swept the Millrose Games and U.S. Indoor Championships for the second straight year and outdoors cleared 6-4¼ (1.94) to win the Stanford Invitational in late March with her first steps at Cobb Track & Angell Field.
Cunningham has other headliners in her family. Her brother, Randall II, has won a pair of NCAA high jump titles for the University of Southern California. The siblings made history in 2015 by each winning gold medals at the Pan-American Junior Championships in Edmonton, Canada. Randall II is named after dad Randall, an all-pro NFL quarterback who coaches Vashti.
Two young Ukrainian jumpers are set for their first appearance in the U.S., and both have already circled the globe.
Yulia Levchenko, 21, was silver medalist at the 2017 World Championships in London, when her PR of 6-7 (2.01) equaled the best-ever by a 19-year-old. Last month she added another silver at the European Indoors, again behind Lasitskene.
Yaroslava Mahuchikh has turned the jumping world upside down. The 17-year-old smashed the world age-best with a stunning 6-6¼ (1.99) in January. She was only 15 when she won the 2017 World U18 (Youth) title at 6-3½ (1.92) in Kenya, and her 2018 Youth Olympics gold in Argentina followed that of Levchenko in ’14 in China.
Morgan Lake will turn 22 on May 12. In 2014, she was a double gold medalist in the high jump and heptathlon at the World Junior Championships in Eugene. She earned silver in last year’s Commonwealth Games after just missing a medal in the World Indoors (4th).
Erika Kinsey, 31, is a 2-time NCAA Division II champion while at Central Missouri. The Swede, a 2-time World Indoor finalist, is a former European Junior champion.
| Women’s High Jump | Personal Best | |
| Mariya Lasitskene (ANA) | 6-9 | (2.06) |
| Yulia Levchenko (Ukraine) | 6-7 | (2.01) |
| Vashti Cunningham (USA) | 6-6¼ | (1.99) |
| Yaroslava Mahuchikh (Ukraine) | 6-6¼ | (1.99) |
| Morgan Lake (Great Britain) | 6-5½ | (1.97) |
| Erika Kinsey (Sweden) | 6-5½ | (1.97) |
| Nicole McDermott (Australia) | 6-5 | (1.96) |
Fans can follow the event lineups as all announced fields are posted at PreClassic.com. The direct link to current start/entry lists is HERE and will include updates to all announced fields.
Tickets for the 45th annual edition of the Prefontaine Classic, to be held June 30 at Cobb Track & Angell Field in Stanford, Calif., are available now by clicking here or at gostanford.com/tickets. Tickets can also be ordered by calling 1-800-STANFORD.
The Prefontaine Classic is the longest-running outdoor invitational track & field meet in America and is part of the elite IAAF Diamond League of meets held worldwide annually. The Pre Classic’s results score has rated No. 1 or No. 2 in the world in each of the last eight years. Sponsored by NIKE continuously since 1984, the Pre Classic will be shown live to an international audience by NBC.
Stanford University has a proud track & field tradition that dates back to 1893. In addition to its 922 All-America honors, 64 Olympians, and four NCAA team titles, Stanford has played host to important meets throughout its history, including the 1941 NCAA Championships, 1932 and 1960 U.S. Olympic Trials, and the epic 1962 USA-USSR dual that has been described as “the greatest track meet of all time.” After the facility was renovated in 1996, Cobb Track & Angell Field has been the site of the 2002 and ’03 U.S. Championships and is annually home to the Payton Jordan Invitational, the nation’s premier distance running carnival.
Steve Prefontaine is a legend in the sport of track & field and is the most inspirational distance runner in American history. He set a national high school 2-mile record (8:41.5) while at Marshfield High School in Coos Bay, Oregon, that is the fastest ever in a National Federation-sanctioned race. While competing for the University of Oregon, he won national cross country championships (3) and outdoor track 3-Mile/5000-meter championships (4), and never lost a collegiate track race at any distance. As a collegiate junior, he made the 1972 U.S. Olympic Team and nearly won an Olympic medal, finishing 4th in the 5K at the 1972 Munich Olympics, at age 21. After finishing college in 1973 and preparing for a return to the Olympics in 1976, he continued to improve, setting many American records. His life ended tragically on May 30, 1975, the result of an auto accident, at age 24. The Pre Classic began that year and has been held every year since.
