Picklers show twin determination

There was double the drama from Washington State’s Pickler twins on Friday.

Julie Pickler pulled off a minor upset in finishing second. And sister Diana, contrary to expectations, simply finished.

Coupled with All-American finishes by discus throwers Matt Lamb (sixth) and McKenzie Garberg (eighth), the Cougars had a pretty good day at the NCAA track and field championships in Sacramento, Calif.

Three other area athletes earned All-American status – Lewis and Clark graduate Britney Henry of Oregon in the hammer (fifth), Bonners Ferry’s Forest Braden of Boise State in the 5,000 (seventh) and Central Valley alum David Pendergrass of BYU in the high jump (ninth).

After Diana Pickler’s championship hopes in the heptathlon had been quashed by her disqualification in the 200 meters Thursday, Julie rescued the weekend a bit by climbing from seventh place to second in the final three events – her lifetime-best total of 5,831 points topped only by an old rival, Arizona State’s Jacquelyn Johnson (5,984).

Diana, who WSU coach Rick Sloan had indicated would drop out of the meet after her setback to prepare for the USATF championships in two weeks, had a change of heart in the morning and resumed competition. Her heart wasn’t completely in it – she finished next to last in the concluding 800 meters – but she finished nonetheless, in 24th.

“It affected me a lot,” said Julie Pickler of her sister’s decision to compete. “I was in tears (Friday) morning with her. I know she was really crushed, but I felt as crushed as she was. For her to go out and do it meant so much to me. I just couldn’t imagine not having her out there.”

Julie Pickler opened the day in seventh place, 224 points behind leader Gaelle Niare of SMU. She was still seventh after a season-best long jump of 19 feet, 6 1/4 inches (wind-aided), but moved up to fifth with a javelin throw of 130-8 and surged past Niare and three others with a time of 2 minutes, 16.66 in the 800 – third best of the day.

Diana Pickler called coming back to the track “one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. But I worked so hard for this. To go into the stands (to watch) would be way worse.”

Some encouraging text messages Friday night from Olympic decathlon champ Dan O’Brien – a former Sloan athlete and, coincidentally, Johnson’s coach at ASU – also helped.

“I told her, ‘Your future successes are going to be that much sweeter because of this mishap,’ ” said O’Brien, who came back after his famous no-height in the 1992 Olympic Trials to finish the event.

Lamb, throwing despite a strained sacroiliac and in considerable pain, still got off a toss of 196-9 for sixth in the men’s discus. Garberg’s best in the women’s event was 168-0 – but some confusion may have cost her a higher finish.

On her fourth throw, the electronic measuring device recorded a toss of 168-0, which caused officials to think they may have been reading her previous best. But an official had already removed the marker when they went to remeasure. It was then determined that the discus had landed at a spot marked at 180-8, which would have moved Garberg to second place – but immediate protests from coaches at Arizona State and Kansas State prompted officials to examine a video tape for clarification.

Garberg’s fourth throw was then “vacated” since no proper measurement could be verified.