Coug women best Huskies again
McKenzie Garberg and Diana Pickler won three events apiece as Washington State’s women continued their track and field dominance over rival Washington on Friday night in Seattle.
But for the Cougar men, it was an evening of misery.
The Huskies won 13 of 19 events and blasted WSU in the distance races en route to a 103-60 victory, their third straight in the series and the largest spread since 2000.
The Cougar women’s 102-61 romp was decided early – WSU taking a 34-7 lead in the first five events.
“The women did a great job of competing this evening, getting the close races and (getting) some plus points,” said WSU coach Rick Sloan. “In watching the meet on the men’s side, I feel like the Huskies out-competed us. That’s a disappointing thing to me. We’re much better than we showed on the men’s side.”
As she did two years ago, Garberg swept the shot put, discus and hammer throw – with seasonal bests in the first two (48 feet, 11 inches and 169-3) and a meet-record toss of 193-6 in the hammer.
Pickler, who has the top mark in the world this season in the heptathlon, showed her versatility by winning the high and long jumps and the javelin, along with a second-place finish in the 100-meter hurdles and legs on both of WSU’s winning relay teams. In the process, she split a pair of events with UW standout Ashley Lodree – a 20-1 1/2 long jump beating the Husky by 5 inches, while Lodree nipped Pickler 13.51-13.64 in the hurdles.
WSU’s Collier Lawrence accounted for the evening’s other meet record, leading a 1-2-3 sweep in the 3,000-meter steeplechase in 10 minutes, 40.15 seconds.
The Cougars’ other standout was Spokane sophomore Catie Schuetzle, who led a sweep in the triple jump with a 41-3 1/4 leap and finished second in the long jump at 19-6 1/4 – both lifetime bests.
The Cougar women have now won 10 of the last 11 meetings with their rivals – this margin of victory being the largest since 2001.
The Husky men jumped to a 21-2 lead after just three events and pounded the Cougars 34-2 in races of two laps or more.
The hosts also got a somewhat unexpected double from transfer hurdler James Fredrickson (14.21 and 51.58) and an expected one from Norris Frederick, who won the high and long jumps. Frederickson also ran legs on UW’s two winning relay teams.
Robertson was WSU’s lone double winner, taking the 100 and 200.
The Cougars did win three of the four throwing events, and two of those winners came from Spokane – Drew Ulrick in the discus (188-1) and Jon Jeffreys with a season-best 221-10 in the javelin. But Spokane’s Tyson Byers lost his showdown with UW’s Scott Roth in the pole vault, the Husky freshman clearing 16-10 3/4 to beat Byers by 4 inches.
It was the worst defeat the Cougar men have absorbed at Husky Stadium since 1922.