Pickler Named USATF Athlete Of The Week

March 7-8, 2009
Eddie Smith Field House, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC

Jake Arnold (Tucson, AZ) and 2008 Olympian Diana Pickler (Austin, TX) each won their respective events at the 2009 USATF Indoor Combined Events Championships held March 7th and 8th at the Eddie Smith Field House on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. USATF named Diana Pickler Athlete of the Week for the week of March 9th following her outstanding performance.

Arnold came into the competition looking to defend the Heptathlon title he won last year and he finished the first 4 evens with a total score of 3144 points, ending Day 1 atop the leader board. He started off Day 2 with the second fastest time in the 60m Hurdles and his clearance of 16' 2 3/4" in the Pole Vault was almost a foot higher than any of the other competitors. A solid run in the 1000m, the last event in the 2-day competition, pushed Arnold's 2-day point total to 5748 points. Arnold, one of 3 new members to the ASICS elite athlete roster for 2009, was a 2-time NCAA Champion and All-American in the Decathlon while at the University of Arizona.

2008 Olympian Diana Pickler (Austin ,TX) also came into the competition looking to win her second consecutive Pentathlon Indoor Championship. Pickler started her day by winning the 60m hurdles, followed with the second best marks in the Long and High Jumps to win the competition with a score of 4391 points, 71 points better than second place finisher Sharon Day. Sharon Day (San Luis Obispo, CA), who also competed in Beijing as a High Jumper, dominated the High Jump and posted the second best marks in the Shot Put and 800m to record a new personal best with a point total of 4320 points in only her second career indoor Pentathlon. To round out the podium spots, Julie Pickler (Manhattan, KS) finished in third place with a total score of 4292 points for the five events contested giving Team ASICS a sweep of the top 3 spots in the final standings. Julie Pickler won the Shot Put and ran the fastest 800m time of the day but could not overcome a below average high jump in order to overtake Diana Pickler and Sharon Day in the points standing.

Lolo Jones (Baton Rouge, LA), who had to overcome a false start and a gun malfunction in her heat to qualify for the finals, blew away the field to win her third consecutive National Indoor Championship. Her winning time of 7.84 was also fast enough for her to win a second consecutive VISA Championship, an award given to the best performer for the Men and Women this indoor season.

Competing in her last US Indoor Championships, Amy Acuff (Isleton, CA) went out in style by capturing her third straight and fifth overall Indoor National Title in the High Jump. Acuff was the only athlete to clear 1.90m and did not have any misses until she missed 3 times at 1.95m. Sharon Day (San Luis Obispo, CA) cleared 1.85m for third place.

Sara Hall (Mammoth Lakes, CA), running in her first indoor meet of the season, patiently moved her way up from the second pack and ran a personal best 8:53.72 to finish in second place. Hall moved into second place with one lap to go, closed hard, but ultimately ran out of track and could not overtake the leader, losing by less than a 1/2 second.

In the Women's 1500m, Sara Hall came back after her second place finish in the 3000m on Saturday night to finish in third place running 4:19.30.

In Tampa, FL, Ryan Hall won the Gasparilla 15K crossing the finish line in 43.23. Running on his own from the start, Hall started off on American Record pace for the first two miles before the stiff winds and temperatures over 70 degrees took its toll, slowing him down over the last three miles. Hall will next race in the Netherlands' City-Pier-City 1/2 Marathon on the 14th of March and the Boston Marathon in April.