Pickler earns Olympic berth

EUGENE, Ore. – Former Washington State athlete and current Cougar assistant coach Diana Pickler qualified for the Olympic Games with a third-place finish in the heptathlon at the U.S. Track and Field Trials Saturday.

Pickler, second after the first day, had fallen to third after the first of Saturday’s three events, the long jump, but held on through the javelin and then ran a clutch 800-meter finale to clinch a spot.

She finished with a personal best of 6,257 points (her previous PR was 6,205), just 10 points ahead of fourth-place Virginia Johnson.

Pickler and Johnson raced in the same section of the 800 with Johnson winning in 2:15.88, but Pickler finished right behind her at 2:16.59 – a personal best by more than 2 seconds – to fend off Johnson in the overall points.

“I was pretty overwhelmed after the javelin because it has not been my forte to race the 800 to beat someone out,” Pickler said. “I knew I was capable of it.

“It took me a little bit to convince myself, but I just stuck on her like glue and knew I could as the race went on.

“She put it on at 300 to go. I knew I couldn’t let her break away for a second or she would be gone. I just attempted to go with her every time she moved.”

Pickler had the third-best time overall in the 800. Her long jump of 20 feet, 53/4 inches was fourth best and her javelin throw of 139-1 fifth best.

“Having to race the 800 to get your place, for any heptathlete, is extremely nerve-racking,” Pickler said. “This is the time to do it. If I didn’t do it here, then I don’t know where else I would do it.”

Her twin sister, Julie, was well back before the 800 finale and dropped out of the competition. The twins are from Sachse, Texas.

Kaylee Fountain won with a world-best 6,667 points, with Jacquelyn Johnson finishing second at 6,347.

Diana described her workout after the competition.

“I work on each event in the first three days of the week and then, whatever I need more work on, I will hit them again later in the week,” she said. “I run three days a week, every other day, and upper body lift three days a week and lower body two days a week and rest on the weekend if I don’t have a meet. That is pretty much my schedule.”

In other events involving area athletes:

•Washington State’s Jeshua Anderson finished fifth in his men’s 400-meter hurdle semifinals. Anderson had the eighth-best time of the two semifinals at 48.92 seconds, but only the top four in heat advanced to the finals. Anderson won the Pac-10, NCAA (in a personal-best 48.69) and USA Junior Championship titles this year.

“I’m just blessed to get this far,” said Anderson afterward.

Also failing to advance was former Cougar Eric Dudley, who was sixth in the same semifinal in 49.37 seconds.

•Russ Winger, who just concluded his collegiate career at Idaho, placed fifth in the men’s shot put at 66-10, well off his best of 69-101/4. Winger fouled on four of his six throws.

Reese Hoffa was the winner at 72-61/4, with Christian Cantwell second (71-23/4) and Adam Nelson third (68-61/2.)

Winger competes in the discus on Thursday.