Pickler sets heptathlon mark

Washington State’s Diana Pickler broke the 17-year-old Pac-10 Conference record by scoring 6,204 points to win the women’s heptathlon at the 80th Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays Thursday at Austin, Texas.

Pickler’s winning score qualified her for the Olympic Trials to decide the U.S. team for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. The trials are in June 2008 at Eugene, Ore.

Pickler, a four-time All-American, broke her school record by 349 points while notching personal-best marks in the long jump (20 feet, 2 1/4 inches) and 800-meter run (2 minutes, 19.08 seconds). The former Pac-10 record was 6,132 points by Arizona State’s Gea Johnson in 1990.

Diana’s twin sister Julie, also a four-time All-American and the defending Texas Relays champion, finished third with a personal-best 5,734 points.

Both Picklers surpassed the NCAA automatic qualifying mark of 5,500 points to compete at the national outdoor championships in June.

“Idaho’s Ian Snook and Molly Burt lead the decathlon and heptathlon, respectively, after the first day of the Pelluer Invitational at Cheney.

College baseball

David Gruener pitched a complete game, allowing one run on seven hits, as Portland routed visiting Gonzaga 9-1 in a West Coast Conference matchup.

The Pilots (14-14, 2-2) tallied a season-high 18 hits. Josh Monroe allowed 10 hits and four runs in four innings in the loss for the Bulldogs (18-16, 2-2).

“Cody Decker and Gabe Cohen hit back-to-back homers during a three-run first inning and UCLA (14-14, 4-0), despite being limited to four hits, posted a 6-5 win over visiting Washington (15-12, 4-3) to open a three-game Pacific-10 Conference series at Los Angeles.