After a long season, several WSU track and field athletes are still competing.

The official school season is over, but five Cougars, eight alumni and one incoming freshman represented WSU at the 2009 USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships and the 2009 USA Junior Outdoor Track & Field Championships this weekend in Eugene, Ore.

“The collegiate season focuses on NCAA competitions,” Assistant Coach Mark Macdonald said. “This is extra if they want to do it.” The junior championship is for those students who are younger than 20, while those at a professional level compete in the general championship.

One competitor for WSU at the junior level is freshman business major Joe Abbott, who ran in the 800-meter race and placed first in his preliminary heat with a personal-best time of 1 minute, 49.78 seconds.

“The plan going in was to sit behind the leaders until the 300 mark and then make my move,” he said in a Saturday news release. “I won, so it worked out alright, but it was definitely harder than I thought it would be.” He went on to place first in the final competition with a time of 1:52.24, securing him a place at the world competition later this summer.

After winning the junior championship at both the national and world levels last year, sophomore communication major Jeshua Anderson competed at the professional level this year.

Anderson, who competes in the 400-meter hurdles, is a two-time Pac-10 and NCAA 400 hurdles champion and holds the WSU record with a time of 48.47.

After coming in second in the semifinals, Anderson finished fifth in the finals in 48.77. Placing fifth means he will not be continuing on to the world competition later this summer.

Though only those choosing to participate in the competition were on hand for training, Anderson was lucky to have another student – freshman psychology major Jerroid Hopkins – also running the 400 hurdles, Macdonald said.

The top three competitors from this competition will advance to the IAAF World Campionships, taking place from August 15 to 23 in Berlin.

Some students chose which competition they would participate in based on how well they thought they could do, Macdonald said.

For example, Courtney Kirkwood, a freshman biomechanics major, qualified for both competitions in javelin but competed in the junior championship. She finished third with a throw of 146 feet, 9 inches.

Only the top two finishers at the USA Junior Championships advance to the Pan American Junior Althetics Championships, that will be held this year July 31 to August 2 in Trinidad.

Hopkins competed in the junior competition as well and advanced to the final after placing fourth in the first round of the competition. He placed fourth in the final round with a time of 51.49, just .07 seconds behind the third-place holder.

Diana Pickler, a Cougar alumna and 2008 Olympian, placed second on the first day of the women’s heptathlon with 3,768 points. The heptathlon consists of the 100-meter hurdles, the high jump, the shot put and the 200-meter race.

Pickler pulled ahead during the final day of competition, winning with a score of 6,290 points, 113 points ahead of the second-place finisher.

In a news release, Pickler said she felt inexperienced this year.

“This is only my fourth heptathlon this year so I definitely felt it a lot in speed and timing,” she said. “But I’m just looking at the big picture really and trying to focus on what I’m trying to accomplish in the next few months.” Freshman undecided major Christian Crain finished ninth in the men’s junior long jump.

Also competing were Cougar alums Bernard Lagat, Ricky Moody, Lorraine King and Moreno Zapata.

No matter what happened at the national competition, the school season was a successful one, Macdonald said.

“We feel good about the way everybody competed,” he said. “We were a little dissapointed by some of the finishes, but the men finished 17th nationally and we are proud to be 17th.”