Diles has great expectations

Track and field doesn’t recognize the concept of unbroken, sequential development. Athletes don’t run faster, jump higher or throw farther each and every week.

Just doesn’t happen.

“Well, I still don’t accept that,” maintained Washington State pole vaulter Tamara Diles. “I expect to go higher every time I compete. That’s just how I am.”

And she is this way in the face of absolute, irrefutable evidence: the high point, so to speak, of her vaulting career arrived two meets into her freshman season, four long years ago.

Unless, of course, a new high point happens this weekend at the NCAA Track and Field Championships in Sacramento. The senior from Bellevue is one of 14 Cougars who have qualified for the four-day meet beginning Wednesday, along with 10 other Inland Northwest athletes.

“I want to go out with a bang this year,” she said. “I’m motivated every year, but there’s something different when it’s your last chance.”

She won’t exactly quantify what “going out with a bang” means. With a clearance of 13 feet, 11 1/4 inches this year, Diles ranks fourth among collegians nationally – but she’s well behind her friendly rival Chelsea Johnson of UCLA, who has topped 15-1. Still, Diles nearly pulled off the upset two weeks ago at the NCAA West Regional, until Johnson was able to struggle over 13-11 3/4 on her last attempt, leaving Diles four inches behind in second.

So there’s always the prospect of Diles’ best day beating something less from Johnson.

But then, she’s been trying to replicate her best day – which was, virtually, Day 1 at WSU.

Diles came to Pullman after winning the State 3A title with a 12-0 jump – though she was far more decorated as a gymnast, three times a state champion in bars and floor exercise. In her first indoor meet as a Coug, she sailed over 13-2 1/4 – and followed it up the next meet with a 14-3 1/4.

Try as she might, she’s never been over 14 feet since.

Frustrating, perhaps – but not a hang-up.

“It was a long time ago, but I won’t say I’m holding on to that,” she said. “It’s nice that I jumped that high my freshman year and I’ve gone through some hurdles since – injuries and mental stuff. I know that I’ve jumped that high before so I can do it again. I don’t think, ‘I used to be able to do that.’ “

Diles is tall – 5-10 – and gifted not only with gymnastic ability (her mother, Roberta, owns a gym) but speed (she ran 100 meters in 12.2 seconds as a high schooler). WSU coach Rick Sloan credited former assistant Kris Grimes with “doing a great job with her” to get Diles over those big heights early – but, in fact, the biggest of those heights was also her temporary undoing.

“When I jumped 14-3 at that meet (in Reno), I got a stress fracture in my first metatarsal and navicular bone,” she said. “I was in a boot for an incredibly long time.”

Indeed, she went to the NCAA indoor championships that year in a boot, took it off and vaulted 13-11 1/4 for third place, then put the boot back on and flew home. She wound up redshirting both that outdoor season and the following indoor schedule, and competed sparingly as a sophomore.

“And during that time, I really lost my focus,” she said. “Just being injured and not competing can do that to you, especially when you’re a freshman. If you don’t have something in front of you – the next meet or whatever – it can be hard. If I’d been older, I think I’d have handled it better.”

Since then, she’s twice been an All-American and two-time Pac-10 runner-up, and lately has topped 13-7 in three of her last four meets. But satisfaction comes hard.

“Periodically, I’ll ask her when she has a decent bar, ‘You happy with that?’ ” said Sloan, who took over her coaching this year after Grimes’ departure. “And she’ll always say no. She’s never lost sight of the fact she’s a 14-foot vaulter and she fully expects to be one again.”