Jessica Hull made history Saturday night at Jesuit High School, breaking the women’s Australian national record in the mile.
Hull, a former Oregon Ducks track star who now trains with the Portland-based and Nike-sponsored Union Athletics Club, finished in a time of 4 minutes, 19.89 seconds to break the former Aussie record by two seconds. Hull flashed the O sign to fans during her victory lap.
Union Athletics Club organized the rare single-event track meet for the sole purpose of supporting their star miler prior the upcoming World Athletics Championships.
Fellow UAC teammates paced Hull around the Cronin Stadium track at record pace. Sinclaire Johnson, the recent U.S. 1,500-meter champion, paced the first half, then German Olympian Koko Klosterhalfen helped set the pace. Former Washington Huskies standout Eleanor Fulton finished the pacing duties up until Hull took over the race for the final lap.
Hull also holds the Aussie 1,500 national record of 3:58.81 that she set last year at the Tokyo Olympics, the 3,000 national record of 8:36.03 and the 5,000 national record of 14:43.80.
The next stop for Hull is Eugene and the world championships, which begin July 15.
— Will Lee for The Oregonian/OregonLive
