MODESTO, Calif. -- Stacy Dragila had the best outdoor women's pole vault in the world this year, easily clearing 15 feet, 1¾ inches in the Modesto Relays on Saturday.

The bar was placed 8 inches higher and Dragila had three attempts to beat her world record of 15-9¼ by half an inch.

After problems on the runway in her first two tries, Dragila clipped the bar on her final try.

"That (last) was my best," Dragila said. "If I would have had two more like that, at that height, I probably could have got it. It keeps me hungry for the next meet."

Dragila set a world record in the Modesto meet two years ago before winning the first Olympic gold medal for female vaulters a few months later.

Jillian Schwartz finished second at 14-5¼, the fifth-best outdoor mark in the world this year. Stephanie McCann also set a Canadian record by clearing 14-1¼ inches.

Allen Johnson, the Olympic gold medalist and world champion in the 110-meter hurdles, won handily in 13.29 seconds -- well off the world record of 12.91 seconds.

"If I can run a so-so race and run 13.29, that's still very good for me this time of year," he said.

Dan O'Brien, the 1996 Olympic decathlon champion, competed in a handful of events, cruising to an easy victory in the 110 open hurdles with a time of 14.23 seconds.

The event Saturday was the first Modesto meet not attended by local track and field star Tom Moore, who died Friday of bone cancer at 88. Moore, a world-record hurdler at the University of California, was the race starter at the first Modesto meet in 1942. He became meet director in 1945 and was a driving force behind the event for six decades.